JEVONS, 2 WORKS

i. The principles of science: a treatise on logic and scientific method. London: Macmillan, 1874, 2 volumes, FIRST EDITION, original reddish-brown cloth, contemporary ownership signatures and bookplate, preserved in cloth folding boxes, browned, endpaper of volume 2 torn, cloth very torn and stained, hinges of volume 1 broken, hinges of volume 2 starting (bought from Michael Phelps, 1982), [T&W J17]ii. Elementary lessons in logic: deductive and inductive with copious questions and examples, and a vocabulary of logical terms. London: Macmillan, 1880, new edition, original cloth, (bought from Morgan, 1990), [T&W J12]8vo

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The first item is Jevons' most important work, containing all his advances to the development of logic set in the framework of the philosophy of science. Jevons argued that the processes of induction were necessarily founded in formal logic, which, unlike Boole, he saw as more fundamental than mathematics. "For its time The Principles of Science was a remarkable achievement, anticipating the approach of more recent works on the philosophy of science and showing Jevons's ability not only to think through the principles of reasoning, but to illustrate their application in a wide range of natural sciences, with which he displayed impressive familiarity." (R. D. Collison Black, ODNB)