ANALYSIS (ἀνὰ λύω, resolutio).—Separation of the parts of a complex whole, either actually, as in physical structure; or by observation and comparison, as in the phenomena of consciousness. In mental philosophy, the resolution of our experience into its simple or original elements, with a view to reconstruction of these with full regard to their relations in the mental state to which they belong.
| In Empirical Psychology, the first requisite is Introspection, (q.v.); the next comparison, distinguishing the elements present in a complex experience. Analysis is the first requisite for interpretation of experience, for attempting a philosophy of the development of mind, and for determining the possibilities of human life. Thus philosophic procedure must in the first instance be analytic. |
Still more important for the progress of philosophy is the synthesis afterwards effected.— V. SYNTHESIS.
Analysis is Real, when a chemist separates two substances; Logical, when we consider properties separately, as the properties of the sides and angles of a triangle; Psychological, when we distinguish the elements which constitute a state of consciousness; Metaphysical, when we distinguish the elements which make experience possible.
Abstraction is analysis, since it is decomposition, but what distinguishes it is that it is exercised upon qualities which by themselves, or out of relation to others, have no real existence.
«Hac analysi licebit, ex rebus compositis ratiocinatione colligere simplices; ex motibus, vires moventes; et in universum, ex effectis causas; ex causisque particularibus generales; donec ad generalissimas tandem sit deventum» (Newton, Optics, 2nd ed. p. 413).
Reid’s Inquiry, Introd. (Hamilton, p. 99); Stewart’s Elements, pt. II. ch. IV.; Hamilton’s Metaph., I. 98, lect. VI.; Sully, Outlines of Psychology, app. I.
