Iris and Jerry R, The question of what Peirce knew or thought about deriving ethics from esthetics is problematical. He analyzed issues of science and logic to such a great depth, that his knowledge of esthetics would seem trivial by comparison, at least to himself. But before claiming that Peirce was incompetent about esthetics or ethics, we should compare his writings to someone who was more competent. Who might that be? Iris> Jerry Rhee asks, "Is it not obvious that Peirce was incompetent for the task imposed upon him of defining the esthetically good?" In some ways, I think he might be right: it's easier to ask questions about the pragmatic trivium as it relates to today's world than to find satisfying answers in Peirce's writings. Yes. Questions are very important. The greatest philosophers of all time have been asking such questions. Has anyone found answers about the normative sciences that are more satisfying than Peirce's? Who? CP 2.197> We shall next take up the logic of the normative sciences, of which logic itself is only the third, being preceded by Esthetics and Ethics. It is now forty-seven years ago that I undertook to expound Schiller's Aesthetische Briefe to my dear friend, Horatio Paine. We spent every afternoon for long months upon it, picking the matter to pieces as well as we boys knew how to do. In those days, I read various works on esthetics; but on the whole, I must confess that, like most logicians, I have pondered that subject far too little. The books do seem so feeble. CP has 129 passages about esthetics. He said that he read various works on the subject, but he found those books "so feeble". Can anyone point to books that are not "feeble" according to the standards that Peirce set for himself? John
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