Thread:
JA:http://web.archive.org/web/20140630220000/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13446
SR:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701002000/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13447
JA:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701003000/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13448
SR:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701024001/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13449
PC:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701031800/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13450
JA:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701032000/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13451
SR:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701040001/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13452
BU:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701200002/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13453
FR:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701210000/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13454
SR:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701211000/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13455
JA:http://web.archive.org/web/20140701214000/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13456
SR:http://web.archive.org/web/20140702041002/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13457
JA:http://web.archive.org/web/20140703055000/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13470
SR:http://web.archive.org/web/20140703140001/http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/13474
Stephen,
Yes, that does take us back to the "dog dissection" problem":
☞http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2003-December/000981.html
which points to a problem at the heart of pragmatism, perhaps to a problem at the heart of humanity.
I did arrive at a certain understanding of these problems many years ago — no doubt influenced by
the Thomistic solutions of the Sisters in some childhood catechism — and Sue and I even started a
paper on the whole issue ... but the exigencies of life intervened and we never finished writing it.
Still, thosse ultimate concerns, for all their being prime movers of my immediate concerns, are far
and away from the task I have set myself under the present heading.
Jon
Stephen C. Rose wrote:
>
This from Peirce gets to the heart of things for me just now:
§5. SCIENCE AS A GUIDE TO CONDUCT
55. We have seen how success in mathematics would necessarily
create a confidence altogether unfounded in man's power of eliciting truth
by inward meditation without any aid from experience. Both its confidence
in what is within and the absolute certainty of its conclusions lead to the
confusion of a priori reason with conscience. For conscience, also, refuses
to submit its dicta to experiment, and makes an absolute dual distinction
between right and wrong. One result of this is that men begin to
rationalize about questions of purity and integrity, which in the long run,
through moral decay, is unfavorable to science. But what is worse, from our
point of view, they begin to look upon science as a guide to conduct, that
is, no longer as pure science but as an instrument for a practical end. One
result of this is that all probable reasoning is despised. If a proposition
is to be applied to action, it has to be embraced, or believed without
reservation. There is no room for doubt, which can only paralyze action.
But the scientific spirit requires a man to be at all times ready to dump
his whole cart-load of beliefs, the moment experience is against them. The
desire to learn forbids him to be perfectly cocksure that he knows already.
Besides positive science can only rest on experience; and experience can
never result in absolute certainty, exactitude, necessity, or universality.
But it is precisely with the universal and necessary, that is, with Law,
that [con]science concerns itself. Thus the real character of science is
destroyed as soon as it is made an adjunct to conduct; and especially all
progress in the inductive sciences is brought to a standstill.
Peirce: CP 1.55 Cross-Ref:††
*@stephencrose <https://twitter.com/stephencrose>*
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