Stefan, Ben, list:
You say *there stands the word ‘democracy’ * *and uses of the word ‘hypotheses’ * *and that it is ‘just an example’*. But hypotheses, examples and words are powerful and reflect much of the way we situate ourselves in Thought. For example, (not sure whether this example will resonate), There are ‘presidents’: Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson And there are ‘presidents’: Donald Trump and Barack Obama To say that I believe Lincoln is an ideal example is different from saying I believe Trump is an ideal example. Moreover, I may not have believed Lincoln was an ideal example if I had lived in his time. These examples say different things to different people and even across different epochs. Yet, Lincoln and Trump are each actual examples of one evolving democracy. As for Peirce’s views on democracy, there is what you and Ben just posted. But there are also other things that contradict his stated views on female suffrage and the selected view on the method of authority. Peirce’s ultimate aim was to further the growth of concrete reasonableness, hasten the chariot wheels of redeeming love. And he knew well of man’s glassy essence. Here is an idea, an ultimate example that promotes democracy. Consider the analogy in light of the earlier quote on *hypotheseos*: Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. *If you really know me, you will know my Father* as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” ~John 14:6-7 Best, Jerry Rhee one two three… On Thu, Nov 24, 2016 at 12:32 PM, sb <peirc...@semiotikon.de> wrote: > Ben, List > > wow, that is interesting! Thanks! > > Also these quotes from the fixation of belief fit into the picture: > > "The method of authority will always govern the mass of mankind; and those > who wield the various forms of organized force in the state will never be > convinced that dangerous reasoning ought not to be suppressed in some way. > If liberty of speech is to be untrammeled from the grosser forms of > constraint, then uniformity of opinion will be secured by a moral terrorism > to which the respectability of society will give its thorough approval. > Following the method of authority is the path of peace. " > > "For the mass of mankind, then, there is perhaps no better method > [authority] than this. If it is their highest impulse to be intellectual > slaves, then slaves they ought to remain." > > Best, > Stefan > > > > Am 24. November 2016 18:58:41 MEZ, schrieb Benjamin Udell < > baud...@gmail.com>: >> >> I've dug a few things up, some of it interesting, some of it also ugly. >> Peirce had more than one mood. >> >> Last pagragraph in Peirce's review in _The Nation_, Vol. 67, Aug. 25, >> 1898, 153-155, of _The Psychology of Suggestion_ by Boris Sidis with an >> introduction by William James. >> http://www.sidis.net/reviewsuggestion1.htm . >> Reprinted in _Contributions to 'The Nation'_ 2:166-9. >> >> In part iii. the author gives a slight account of some at those mental >> epidemics of which several French writers, beginning with Moreau, have >> made admirable studies. That the mob self is a subconscious self is >> obvious. It is quite true, too, as Dr. Sidis says, that America is >> peculiarly subject to epidemic mental seizures, in fact, it may be said >> that democracy, as contrasted with autocracy—and especially government by >> public opinion and popular sentiment as expressed in newspapers—is >> government by the irrational element of man. To discover how this can be >> cured, as a practical, realized result, without the ends of government >> being narrowed to the good of an individual or class, is our great problem. >> Prof. James seems to think that this part is the best. We will defer to his >> judgment, but certainly a great subject here remains virgin ground for a >> writer of power. >> [End quote] >> >> That should be read together with the quote - from the same year, 1898 - >> that Clark found in CP 1.654 (in "Practical Concerns and the Wisdom of >> Sentiment" in "Vitally Important Topics") http://www.textlog.de/4277.html >> : >> >> Common sense, which is the resultant of the traditional experience of >> mankind, witnesses unequivocally that the heart is more than the head, and >> is in fact everything in our highest concerns, thus agreeing with my >> unproved logical theorem; and those persons who think that sentiment has no >> part in common sense forget that the dicta of common sense are objective >> facts, not the way some dyspeptic may feel, but what the healthy, natural, >> normal democracy thinks. And yet when you open the next new book on the >> philosophy of religion that comes out, the chances are that it will be >> written by an intellectualist who in his preface offers you his metaphysics >> as a guide for the soul, talking as if philosophy were one of our deepest >> concerns. How can the writer so deceive himself? >> >> _The Nation_ 85 (12 September 1907) 229: NOTES Peirce: _Contributions >> to The Nation_ 3:290 >> https://www.google.com/search?q=%22We+fear+that+Mr.+ >> Stickney+is+too+optimistic%22 >> >> Albert Stickney's "Organized Democracy" (Houghton, Mifflin & Co.) is one >> of those radical pleas for political reconstruction which, however little >> likely to be adopted or even seriously considered, are not without >> usefulness as criticisms of existing political evils. Mr. Stickney is >> convinced not only that we have not true democracy in this country, but >> also that we cannot have true democracy so long as the present electoral >> and administrative systems prevail. Under popular election of all officials >> for fixed terms, joined to the party system, all that the voter can do is >> to vote for the candidate of this or that machine; his own personal choice, >> if he have one, he cannot possibly register. The remedy Mr. Stickney urges >> is the establishment, in local, State, and Federal Government, of a system >> of single-headed administration, with the heads of departments controlled >> directly by a Legislature the members of which are popularly chosen by viva >> voce vote. For tenure during short terms there would be substituted tenure >> during good behavior. Congress, for example, would become a body of one >> house with the power of removing the President, but without control over >> subordinate appointments. We fear that Mr. Stickney is too optimistic, and >> too little appreciative of the difficulty in this country of achieving >> reforms by wholesale; but his shrewd observations and obvious seriousness >> make his book not uninteresting. Incidentally, we commend to the curious >> the extraordinary punctuation of the volume. >> [End quote] >> >> Of course we know that Peirce believed that people who won't think ought >> to be enslaved. 1908 to Lady Welby >> https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Folly+in+politics+cannot+ >> go+farther+than+English+liberalism%22 : >> >> Being a convinced Pragmaticist in Semeiotic, naturally and necessarily >> nothing can appear to me sillier than rationalism; and folly in politics >> cannot go further than English liberalism. The people ought to be enslaved; >> only the slaveholders ought to practice the virtues that alone can maintain >> their rule. England will discover too late that it has sapped the >> foundations of its culture. [...] >> [End quote] >> >> Douglas R. Anderson discusses Peirce and politics in the anthology _The >> Rule of Reason_, from which I drew that quote. That passage appears also >> in the Peirce collection _Values in a Universe of Chance_ p. 402 (in >> "Science and Religion") https://www.google.com/search? >> q=%22Folly+in+politics+cannot+go+farther+than+English+liberalism%22 , >> and therein Peirce goes on to predict that murderous labor-organizations >> will become the new ruling class, in which Peirce sees problems and some >> reasons for hope. >> >> Kloesel in 1988 and Norbert Wiley in 1995 and 2003 quoted Peirce from MS >> 645 >> http://cdclv.unlv.edu/pragmatism/wiley_pragma_demo.html >> >> If they were to come to know me better they might learn to think me >> ultra-conservative. I am, for example, an old-fashioned christian, a >> believer in the efficacy of prayer, an opponent of female suffrage and of >> universal male suffrage, in favor of letting business-methods develop >> without the interference of law, a disbeliever in democracy, etc. etc. >> [End quote] >> >> Hoopes also quoted most of that last passage in _Community Denied: The >> Wrong Turn of Pragmatic Liberalism_, page 19. MS 645 is dated 1909-10, >> here is the Robin Catalogue entry: >> >> 645. How to Define (Definition: 3rd Draught) >> A. MS., n.p., December 22 - January 12, 1910, pp. 1-26, with a variant p. >> 20. >> Three studies distinguished (phaneroscopy, logic, and psychology) and >> their order of dependence established. Feeling, volition, and thought. In >> regard to feeling, Hume is in error, for he is committed to the view that >> vividness is an element of a sensequality. The three modes of separating >> the elements of a thought-object are precision, dissociation, and >> discrimination. Volition and purpose. Resemblances as residing in the >> interpretation of secondary feelings. CSP's essential conservatism. He >> warns, however, that self-criticism, carried too far, leads to exaggerated >> distrust. >> >> Best, Ben >> >> On 11/23/2016 8:24 PM, sb wrote: >> > > -- > Diese Nachricht wurde von meinem Android-Mobiltelefon mit K-9 Mail > gesendet. > > > ----------------------------- > 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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