Colligation

2 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Colligation \Col`li*ga"tion\, n. [L. colligatio.]
     1. A binding together. --Sir T. Browne.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. (Logic) That process by which a number of isolated facts
        are brought under one conception, or summed up in a


        general proposition, as when Kepler discovered that the
        various observed positions of the planet Mars were points
        in an ellipse. "The colligation of facts." --Whewell.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Colligation is not always induction, but induction
              is always colligation.                --J. S. Mill.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  colligation
       n 1: the state of being joined together [syn: {junction}, {conjunction},
             {conjugation}]
       2: the connection of isolated facts by a general hypothesis