Inference and Conduct

Logic is the study of Inference. Inference fundamentally connects two assertions, via a Middle Term, thereby generating a third assertion. It serves as a means of acquiring knowledge without needing to resort to observation. There are two main reasons for acquiring knowledge without reversion to observation. First, when observation is a possible alternative means of discovery, i. e. the facts are available, Inference is more efficient. But second, when facts are not available for observation, Inference is essential, and what cannot, in principle, be observed is what does not exist, especially the consequences of a possible Action under consideration. In other words, Inference is essential to decision-making, not merely as a producer of results in advance, but, as Dewey shows, as a guide of the investigative procedures, e. g. scientific experimentation, that yield those results. But the Evolvemental concept of Experience shows the role of Inference in any structured Conduct, not merely investigation. Inference is the source of order and connectivity in sequences of Action--it leads one from A to C via the Middle Term B, which is both the Consequent of A and the Antecedent of C. Furthermore, the ultimate Middle Term of Experience is the 'I' itself--the pivot between Propriation, i. e. the internalization of what one has just done, and Exposition, i. e. the externalization of what one is about to do.