The Logic of Social Explanation in Moral Sciences from the Perspective of John Stuart Mill

Authors

1 Department of Social Sciences, Faculty of Culture, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Bagheral Uloom (AS) University, Qom, Iran

2 Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The main issue in the development of a knowledge system is logic, based on which the necessary relationships between the categories of a specific knowledge system are explained. John Stewart put forth a concept in his book Sy​stem of Logic regarding the evolution of the social and moral sciences, which introduced distinctive methodological tools. Inspired by Newtonian physics and political economy, he sought to explain the development path of moral sciences or, in a more modern way, human sciences. In order to establish a novel framework for the study of moral sciences, he required an innovative logic to elucidate moral phenomena. Hence, his emphasis lies not on the logical aspects of gathering observational data, but rather on the formation of social categories and the necessary relationships between them.
In this article, we analyze the books and articles related to the explanatory logic system in moral sciences from the perspective of John Stuart Mill using analytical-descriptive method. In pursuit of this purpose, the textual material from the book Logic System has been utilized as the primary source. To attain a more comprehensive analysis of the text's substance and uncover its concealed strata, preliminary references to Mil's other works and his intellectual framework were made, followed by articles and books that pertain to his logic system. Written along with macro principles, we have used empiricism.
An analysis of the substance of John Stuart Mill's writings, with particular emphasis on the book System of Logic, reveals that although moral science uses the general rules of empiricism, it has a special logic in terms of content, which includes a special way of History develops.

Keywords

References

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