We have, in fact, in such a case, a Consilienceof Inductions.
The consilienceof empirical and deductive processes was an Aristotelian discovery, elaborated by Mill against Bacon.
It teaches us that scientific method is sometimes induction, sometimes deduction, and sometimes the consilience of both, either by the inductive verification of previous deductions, or by the deductive explanation of previous inductions.
And as I shall have occasion to refer to this peculiar feature in their evidence, I will take the liberty of describing it by a particular phrase, and will term it the Consilience of Inductions.
This coincidence of propositions inferred from separate classes of facts, is exactly what we noticed in the last book, as one of the most decisive characteristics of a true theory, under the name of Consilience of Inductions.
The theory of universal gravitation, and of the undulatory theory of light, are indeed full of examples of this consilience of inductions.
