Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 8. Charles S. Peirce
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Название: Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 8
Автор: Charles S. Peirce
Издательство: Ingram
Жанр: Философия
isbn: 9780253004215
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Ribot’s terminology sometimes seems open to criticism. Of the two forms of attention, that which is governed by the course of outward perceptions and that which is controlled from within by definite purposes, he terms the former spontaneous, the latter voluntary. Now, suppose a man in a sudden fit of anger blackguards another, can it be said that his speech was involuntary simply because it was not controlled? And if he wished to excuse himself on the ground of sudden provocation, would he say that his language was purely spontaneous? It would seem better to call every action which is subject to inward control voluntary, whether actually controlled or not, and to apply the term spontaneous only to those acts which are not reflexes from external stimuli.
The translation is sufficiently good, and the Open Court is doing useful work in publishing such books.
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Six Lectures of Hints toward a Theory of the Universe
| Spring 1890 | Houghton Library |
Lecture I. Right reasoning in philosophy is only possible if grounded on a sound theory of logic.
Fruitful thinking and experimentation are only two branches of one process. They are essentially one. Thinking is experimentation; its results as startling, as inexplicable. Experimentation is thinking.
The law of the development of fruitful conceptions, made out from the history of science. A genuine development.
The nature of assurance. Induction & Hypothesis.
Lecture II. The ideas of philosophy must be drawn from logic, as Kant draws his categories. For so far as anything intelligible and reasonable can be found in the universe, so far the process of nature and the process of thought are at one.
What are the fundamental conceptions of logic? First, Second, Third. Explanation and illustrations.
Chance, Law, and Continuity must be the great elements in the explanation of the universe.
Lecture III. Critical survey of mental development in the last three centuries, and the ideas of today.
The social situation. Its philosophical suggestions.
The present conception of mathematics. The axioms exploded. Consequences for philosophy.
The present state of molecular physics. Unpromising forecast. Our only hope is in a natural history of laws and forces.
Modern psychology. Its lessons for philosophy.
Lecture IV. The mathematical infinite and absolute. Their relations to philosophy.
Mathematical “imaginaries.” Cauchy’s view.
Infinity; Cantor’s views partly accepted, partly rejected.
Modern geometry; elementary explanation.
Non-Euclidean geometry and the absolute.
Theory of the absolute by Klein.
Application of these ideas to philosophy; Epicureanism, Pessimism, Evolutionism.
Lecture V. Cartesian dualism, examined & rejected. Three systems remain: Materialism, monism, idealism. The absurdity of materialism. Monism consistently carried out would reduce itself to absurdity; but practically it is but a modification of materialism. Idealism, reasonable. Matter is effete mind.
The controversy concerning Darwinian and Lamarckian evolution. Abstract statement of Darwinianism, so as to show its applicability wherever there is evolution of any kind. Abstract statement of Lamarckianism; its harmony with idealism. Is any third mode of evolution conceivable?
Lecture VI. The ideal beginning of things. The law of assimilation, and the breaking up of law.
The development of time.
The development of space, energy, inertia, etc.
Gravitation and molecular force.
The chemical elements.
Protoplasm.
The development of Consciousness, individual, social, macrocosmic.
The ideal end of things.
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Sketch of a New Philosophy
| Spring 1890 | Houghton Library |
DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD
1. It is not a historical fact that the best thinking has been done by words, or aural images. It has been performed by means of visual images and muscular imaginations. In reasoning of the best kind, an imaginary experiment is performed. The result is inwardly observed, and is as unexpected as that of a physical experiment. On the other hand, the success of outward experimentation depends on there being a reason in nature. Thus, reasoning and experimentation are essentially analogous.
2. According to what law are fruitful conceptions developed? Their first germs present themselves in concrete and confused forms. The human mind, without being able to draw certain truth from its own depths, has nevertheless a natural bias toward true ideas of force and of human nature. It finds such ideas simple, easy, natural. Natural selection may be supposed to account for this to some extent. Yet the first origins of fruitful ideas can only be referred to chance. They promptly sink into oblivion if the mind is unprepared for them. If they meet allied ideas, a welding process takes place. This is the great law of association, the one law of intellectual development. It is very different from a mechanical law, in that it is only a gentle force. If ideas once together were rigidly associated, intellectual development would be frustrated. Association is external and internal, two grand divisions. These act in two ways, first to carry ideas up and make them broader, second to carry them out in detail.
3. Development of the theory of assurance, mainly as in my previous writings.
4. Philosophy seeks to explain the universe at large, and show what there is of intelligible or reasonable in it. It is thus committed to the notion (a postulate which however may not be completely true) that the process of nature and the process of thought are alike.
The opening sheet (R 928:2) of “Sketch of a New Philosophy,” with penciled markings in the upper-right corner, inscribed by the Collected Papers editors, suggesting that this manuscript was at one point considered for inclusion in Collected Papers. (By permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.)
Analysis of the logical process. [Much of this in my previous writings.] The conceptions of First, Second, Third, rule all logic, and are therefore to be looked for in nature. Chance and the law of high numbers. The process of stirring up a bag of beans preparatory to taking out a sample handful analogous to the welding of ideas.
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