Dear Stefan, list:
To illustrate better what I mean, consider the following: The surprising fact, opponent of female suffrage *C*, is observed. But if the woman-drama *A* were true, then C would be a matter of course. Hence, *there is reason to suspect* that A is true. “Opponent of female suffrage” is surprising because Lady Welby. As to whether Peirce wanted to bring attention to the woman-drama, that *wrinkled old women exercising naked in public* *are as* *unfunny as philosophers ruling*, consider his views on Plato. As to the method of authority, Peirce also said: *My book will have no instruction to impart to anybody. Like a mathematical treatise, it will suggest certain ideas and certain reasons for holding them true; but then, if you accept them, it must be because you like my reasons, and the responsibility lies with you. Man is essentially a social animal: but to be social is one thing, to be gregarious is another: I decline to serve as bellwether. * Hth, Jerry R On Thu, Nov 24, 2016 at 1:14 PM, Jerry Rhee <jerryr...@gmail.com> wrote: > 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.htm >>> l : >>> >>> 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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