Colligation
Colligation
(Lat. con + ligare, to bind) The assimilation of a number of separately observed facts to a unified conception or formula. The term was introduced by Whewcll who gives the eximple of the idea of an eliptical orbit which “unifies all observations made on the positions of a planet” (see Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, I Aphorism 1). J. S. Mill appropriates the term and carefully differentiates it from inductionwhereas colligation is a simple “description” of observed facts, induction is an extension to the unknown and to the future. See Logic, III, ii, 4. — L.W.