List, Although there's been no response to my initial set of quotations regarding Peirce's view of Plato's philosophy, I'll add a couple more today just in case anyone is at all interested in the topic. Should there be no responses, I may post a couple more, then end this thread, albeit somewhat disappointed that there isn't more interest in how Peirce viewed Plato's philosophy.
*Summary of EP 2:40. Peirce describes the typical mathematician as a "Platonist," seeing mathematics as discovering a "real potential world." Pure mathematics thus seeks to understand an eternal cosmos, beyond the arbitrary nature of physical existence. Comment: CSP: "The end that Pure Mathematics is pursuing is to discover that real potential world." Suzanne Langer, at the conclusion of her monumental Mind: An Essay in Human Feeling, arrives at what might be seen as a complementary conclusion in suggesting that, as human cognition evolves, mathematics might provide the tools for a new phase of intellectual and emotional development.* The fashion in mathematics is to print nothing but demonstrations, and the reader is left to divine the workings of the man's mind from the sequence of those demonstrations. But if you enjoy the good fortune of talking with a number of mathematicians of a high order, you will find that the typical Pure Mathematician is a sort of Platonist. Only, he is /a/ Platonist who corrects the Heraclitean error that the Eternal is not Continuous. The Eternal is for him a world, a cosmos, in which the universe of actual existence is nothing but an arbitrary locus. The end that Pure Mathematics is pursuing is to discover that real potential world. Once you become inflated with that idea, vital importance seems to be a very low kind of importance, indeed. EP 2:40 *Summary of EP 2:95: Peirce remarks on Plato’s commitment to reason, particularly in the Timaeus, where he asserts ideas as true if they make the world more rational. This would appear to be a very Peircean pragmatic understanding.* Even Plato, in the Timaeus and elsewhere, does not hesitate roundly to assert the truth of anything, if it seems to render the world reasonable. . . EP 2:95 Best, Gary R ReplyForward Add reaction On Sun, Nov 3, 2024 at 4:54 PM Gary Richmond <[email protected]> wrote: > List, > > I very much appreciate Jeff bringing up the topic of the influence of > Plato on Peirce. Perhaps, like many Peirce scholars,I've been led (rightly > or wrongly is the investigatory question) to think of Peirce as much more > akin to Aristotle than to Plato and in some matters of logic he certainly > does seem closer to Aristotle; and by his own admission. So I decided to do > a keyword search of the EP and CP of 'Plato' (not Platonism, which I think > is a very different matter with a strikingly different emphasis) in an > attempt to discover for myself what he actually thought about Plato. I'm > going to offer some of the passages I found to be helpful in my review -- > and subsequent partial reconsideration of -- Plato's influence on Peirce.. > > Rather than present all the passages at once, I'm going to post two or > three a day and, if I have the time this week, I'll send all my succinct > summaries and sources of the quotations to come so that interested folk can > read them in advance and in context should they wish to. > > Remembering reading philosophy texts in my 20's and 30's in libraries or > used book stores, in old editions which occasionally had a short precis in > boldface small print on the upper left side of each item, sometimes each > paragraph, I've included my own succinct summary of each quotation so that > forum members can quickly decide if they want to read that particular item. > I have little doubt that some of my summaries may miss the mark and need > correcting. Nonetheless, here are today's quotations preceded by my summary. > > ***** > > *Summary of EP 2:35: Peirce argues that in Plato's later works he shifts > from a Theory of Ideas to view eternal essences as mathematical, not as > things with 'Actual Existence' but as having 'Potential Being'. Plato’s > philosophy evolves to view ideas as mathematical forms with relationships > akin to numbers, thus perhaps moving in the direction of seeing them as > continuous.* > > The dialogue of the Sophistes, lately shown to belong to Plato's last > period,— when he had, as Aristotle tells us, abandoned Ideas and put > Numbers in place of them,—this dialogue, I say, gives reasons for > abandoning the Theory of Ideas which imply that Plato himself had come to > see, if not that the Eternal Essences are continuous, at least, that there > is an order of affinity among them, such as there is among Numbers. Thus, > at last, the Platonic Ideas became Mathematical Essences, not possessed of > Actual Existence but only of a Potential Being quite as Real, and his > maturest philosophy became welded into mathematics. EP 2:35 > > > * Summary of EP 2:37-38: Peirce highly praises Plato’s vision of science, > especially in so far as he corrected the Heraclitan error of "holding the > Continuous to be Transitory and . . . making the Being of the Idea > potential." But he also criticizes him for overlooking two types of > causation and for making Matter a negative, "a mere non-Being." Plato > focused only on internal causes (form and matter) while Aristotle pointed > out the need to consider external causes (efficient and final), and Peirce > slightly modifies Aristotle's assessment. Peirce suggests Plato’s > philosophy is fundamentally about relationship (3ns), but Plato > misunderstood his own ideas by focusing on duality and dichotomy. But > neglecting external causes he is also actually overlooking 2ns.* > > [I]n regard to the general conception of what the ultimate purpose and > importance of science consists in, no philosopher who ever lived, ever > brought that out more clearly than this early scientific philosopher [viz. > Plato]. Aristotle justly finds fault with Plato in many respects. But all > his criticisms leave unscathed Plato's definitive philosophy, which results > from the correction of that error of Heraclitus which consisted in holding > the Continuous to be Transitory and also from making the Being of the Idea > potential. Aristotle for example justly complains that of the four kinds of > causes Plato only recognizes the two internal ones., Form and Matter, and > loses sight of the two external ones, the Efficient Cause and the > End.Though in regard to final causes this is scarcely just, it is more than > just, in another respect. For not only does Plato only recognize internal > causes, but he does not even recognize Matter as anything positive. He > makes it mere negation, mere non-Being, or Emptiness, forgetting or perhaps > not knowing that that which produces positive effects must have a positive > nature. Although Plato's whole philosophy is a philosophy of > Thirdness,—that is to say, it is a philosophy which attributes everything > to an action which rightly analyzed has Thirdness for its capital and chief > constituent,—he himself only recognizes duality, and makes himself an > apostle of Dichotomy,— which is a misunderstanding of himself. To overlook > second causes is only a special case of the common fault of all > metaphysicians that they overlook the Logic of Relatives. But when he > neglects external causes, it is Secondness itself that he is overlooking. > This self-misunderstanding, this failure to recognize his own conceptions, > marks Plato throughout. It is a characteristic of the man that he sees much > deeper into the nature of things than he does into the nature of his own > philosophy, and it is a trait to which we cannot altogether refuse our > esteem. > EP 2: 37-38 > > > *Commentary: In his introduction to "The Seven Systems of Metaphysics" in > the 1903 Harvard Lecture Series, Nathan Houser writes: "Peirce aligns > himself with the seventh system, arguing for the reality of all three > categories. . ." EP 2:179 Note: Both Plato and Aristotle are included in > this system, Aristotelianism being characterized as "a special development" > of the Platonic philosophy.* > > The metaphysics that recognizes all the categories may need at once to be > subdivided. But I shall not stop to consider its subdivision. It embraces > Kantism,—Reid's philosophy and the Platonic philosophy of which > Aristotelianism is a special development. > EP 2:180 > > > Best, > > Gary R > > >
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