descriptions arrived at from this method will tend to be made and based upon obsolete observations, and hence also rest upon results that have been falsified by new observations and new inferences. One is therefore well advised to keep in mind what Bertrand Russell said on the nature and validity of conclusions and inferences: So according to Russell it is only under very specific circumstances that inferences are a) deductive and b) apodictically certain - if they are derived from an axiom, that is, a logically indemonstrable proposition, or from a dogma, an authoritatively unquestionable and thus indisputable proposition. So for Russell, it is thus possible to establish deductive inferences outside the areas of logic and pure mathematics, but any such deductions will rest upon established dogma, which from a formal point of view is something other than an axiom. It is thus possible to create a system of inferences that are derived from an authority, and yet have deductive validity in relation to reality, insofar as, regardless of what is true in objective reality, the “the statute books or the scriptures” and that which may be derived from them, take precedence -and do so with assumed absolute validity. A further reason to exclude the transcendent inference from the range of proper deductive inferences, apart from its obvious falsity, is that it is possible to deny the conclusion derived from the transcendent argument without at the same time stating a logical contradiction or without giving rise to logical inconsistencies. On the other hand, if the transcendent argument actually was purely formal then any denial of its conclusion must entail a logical contradiction. For if a valid demonstrative conclusion is a ca l l f o r s c i e n t i f i c p u r i t y 127 “All the important inferences outside logic and pure mathematics are inductive, not deductive; the only exceptions are law and theology, each of which derives its first principles from an unquestionable text, viz. the statute books or the scriptures.”279 279 Russell, History, pp. 209-210.
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