The
method is then truly scientific--that is, not only a legitimate
product of science, but capable of generating science in its turn.
There are certain electrical phenomena, again, which are connected
together by relations of the same form as those which connect
dynamical phenomena. To apply to these the phrases of dynamics with
proper distinctions and provisional reservations is an example of a
metaphor of a bolder kind; but it is a legitimate metaphor if it
conveys a true idea of the electrical relations to those who have been
already trained in dynamics.
Suppose, then, that we have successfully introduced certain ideas
belonging to an elementary science by applying them metaphorically to
some new class of phenomena. It becomes an important philosophical
question to determine in what degree the applicability of the old
ideas to the new subject may be taken as evidence that the new
phenomena are physically similar to the old.
The best instances for the determination of this question are those in
which two different explanations have been given of the same thing.
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