I am sure there are people here who can substantiate a more balanced defense of my "notion" than I can. Everything I have done since encountering CSP has been based on my understanding. Even if it was in error I would still be grateful for the fund of insight that has let me to my own articulation of what I have at times called pragmaticism. I infer from my own experience, whose practical consequences are obvious to me, that Peirce from the start, potentially, and at the end explicitly, acknowledged a sense of assuredness that he attributed to connection with Reality, the very (unfathomable) penumbra from which signs themselves emerge. And that he saw this Reality tending toward agape. I am not sure what we are debating. Either he did or he didn't.
*@stephencrose <https://twitter.com/stephencrose>* On Wed, May 21, 2014 at 12:00 PM, Gary Fuhrman <g...@gnusystems.ca> wrote: > Stephen, > > > > If the "unpublished fragment" you quote dates from 1890, how can it bear > witness to the effect on Peirce of an experience he had in 1892? > > > > Peirce's account of that experience says that he was drawn into St. > Thomas's church, and up to the communion rail, "almost without my own > volition." He wrote about it to the rector of the church, offering his > services in "some form of church work". Then he says, "I have never before > been mystical; but now I am." But what does that mean, pragmaticistically? > What church work did Peirce do as a result? As for his philosophical work, > there is no evidence whatsoever that this "mystical" experience, or the > memory of it, had anything to do with Peirce inventing "pragmaticism" as an > alternative to "pragmatism" 12 years later. I think you're ignoring > everything Peirce wrote about the "natural light" during the years in > between (see my post addressed to Søren). That certainly *does* have a > lot to do with pragmaticism. > > > > Brent on p.210 makes a totally specious connection between this incident > and something Peirce wrote six years later, in which he says that "No > amount of speculation can take the place of experience." But that passage > is much more genuinely connected to Peirce's remark in his 1903 Harvard > lectures that "experience is our only teacher." Peirce makes no mention in > either place of *mystical* experience, and elsewhere he makes it clear > that the mystical is just about the most inconsequential kind of > experience, contributing almost nothing to the growth of "concrete > reasonableness", which he virtually equates with the evolution of God. > > > > gary f. > > > > *From:* Stephen C. Rose [mailto:stever...@gmail.com] > *Sent:* 21-May-14 11:04 AM > > *To:* Gary Fuhrman > *Cc:* Peirce List > *Subject:* Re: [PEIRCE-L] De Waal seminar chapter 9, section on God, > science and religion: text 1 > > > > For starters this unpublished fragment noted in Brent (2nd ed) as CSP to > PC [20 July 1890) (L 77) which reads in part:: "Since then God is using me > ... should I not be content? ..." And then his explicit description of his > experience in church which he describes in his own words as mystical on pp > 209-10 of the same book. CSP's conclusion" "I have never before been > mystical, but now I am." The practical effect was his effort to define > pragmaticism as distinct from pragmatism and complete 70K or so mss pages, > many following the experience of April 24, 1992. I would suggest the > practical effect is manifest 100 years following his death. And that such > testimony in itself should at least be accorded a place in scholarly > awareness of his biography. > > > > > > ----------------------------- > PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON > PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to > peirce-L@list.iupui.edu . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L > but to l...@list.iupui.edu with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the > BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm. > > > > > >
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