Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Charles S. Peirce

@charlespeirce.bsky.social

230 followers 11 following 1.8K posts

Philosopher (deceased).

Charles Sanders Peirce was an American scientist, mathematician, logician, and philosopher who is sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". According to philosopher Paul Weiss, Peirce was "the most original and versatile of America's philosophers and America's greatest logician". Bertrand Russell wrote "he was one of the most original minds of the later nineteenth century and certainly the greatest American thinker ever". .. more

Philosophy 60%

Mathematics 12%

Posts Media Videos Starter Packs

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 21h

They regard an object as it is in itself as such (quale); for example, as horse, tree, or man. These are absolute terms.
/2x

1 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 21h

Now logical terms are of three grand classes.The first embraces those whose logical form involves only the conception of quality,and which therefore represent a thing simply as "a —."These discriminate objects in the most rudimentary way,which does not involve any consciousness of discrimination.
/1

1 1 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 23h

Thus, twenty skillful hypotheses will ascertain what 200,000 stupid ones might fail to do.

2 3

Reposted by Charles S. Peirce

Center for Dewey Studies @deweycenter.siu.edu · 1d

...But it also knows that its juvenile assumption of power and achievement is not a dream to be wholly forgotten. It implies a unity with the universe that is to be preserved.”
(2/3)

1 1 2

Reposted by Charles S. Peirce

Center for Dewey Studies @deweycenter.siu.edu · 1d

“[A] mind that has opened itself to experience and that has ripened through its discipline knows its own littleness and impotencies; it knows that its wishes and acknowledgments are not final measures of the universe whether in knowledge or in conduct, and hence are, in the end, transient....
(1/3)

1 1 2

Reposted by Charles S. Peirce

Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 1d

To say that we should drop the idea of truth as out there waiting to be discovered is not to say that we have discovered that, out there, there is no truth.
'Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity' p.8
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Truth

2 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 1d

That the rule of induction will hold good in the long run may be deduced from the principle that reality is only the object of the final opinion to which sufficient investigation would lead.

1 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 1d

It will be seen that pragmatism is not a Weltanschauung but is a method of reflexion having for its purpose to render ideas clear.

1 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 1d

The study of philosophy consists, therefore, in reflexion, and pragmatism is that method of reflexion which is guided by constantly holding in view its purpose and the purpose of the ideas it analyzes, whether these ends be of the nature and uses of action or of thought.

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

in the imperative mood.
/2x

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

Pragmatism is the principle that every theoretical judgment expressible in a sentence in the indicative mood is a confused form of thought whose only meaning, if it has any, lies in its tendency to enforce a corresponding practical maxim expressible as a conditional sentence having its apodosis
/1

1 1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

Have pleasure and pain the same sort of constitution, or are they contrasted in this respect, pleasure arising upon the formation or strengthening of an association by resemblance, and pain upon the weakening or disruption of such a habit or conception?

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

Among more purely psychological questions, the nature of pleasure and pain will be likely to attract attention. Are they mere qualities of feeling, or are they rather motor instincts attracting us to some feelings and repelling others?

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

To ascertain the meaning of an intellectual conception one should consider what practical consequences might result from the truth of that conception—and the sum of these consequences constitute the entire meaning of the conception.

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object.
/2x

1 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

Pragmatism. The opinion that metaphysics is to be largely cleared up by the application of the following maxim for attaining clearness of apprehension: Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have.
/1

1 2 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

…the rule for attaining the third grade of clearness of apprehension is as follows: Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object.

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 2d

How many people there are who are incapable of putting to their own consciences this question, "Do I want to know how the fact stands, or not?"

2 2

Reposted by Charles S. Peirce

Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 3d

There is no answer to the question "Why not be cruel?"—no noncircular theoretical backup for the belief that cruelty is horrible.
'Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity' p.xv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#Cruelty

For liberal ironists, there is no answer to the question "Why not be cruel?"—no noncircular theoretical backup for the belief that cruelty is horrible. Nor is there an answer to the question "How do you decide when to struggle against injustice and when to devote yourself to private projects of self-creation?" This question strikes liberal ironists as just as hopeless as the questions "Is it right to deliver n innocents over to be tortured to save the lives of m x n other innocents? If so, what are the correct values of n and m?" or the question "When may one favor members of one's family, or one's community, over other, randomly chosen, human beings?" Anybody who thinks that there are well-grounded theoretical answers to this sort of question—algorithms for resolving moral dilemmas of this sort—is still, in his heart, a theologian or a metaphysician. He believes in an order beyond time and change which both determines the point of human existence and establishes a hierarchy of ...

3 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 3d

The vogue of each particular maxim of theirs was necessarily brief. For what distinction can be gained by repeating saws heard from all mouths?

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 3d

I should add: adhere to the one ordinance of Play, the law of liberty.

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 4d

Do not block the way of inquiry.

2 3

Reposted by Charles S. Peirce

Rorty QOTD @rortyquotes.bsky.social · 4d

How would things look if we drop the demand for a theory which unifies the public and private, and are content to treat the demands of self-creation and of human solidarity as equally valid, yet forever incommensurable?
'Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity' p.xv
#Pragmatism
#Rorty
#PublicVsPrivate

This book tries to show how things look if we drop the demand for a theory which unifies the public and private, and are content to treat the demands of self-creation and of human solidarity as equally valid, yet forever incommensurable.

2 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 5d

it is refreshing enough more than to repay the expenditure.
/2x

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 5d

There is a certain agreeable occupation of mind which, from its having no distinctive name, I infer is not as commonly practised as it deserves to be; for indulged in moderately—say through some five to six per cent of one's waking time, perhaps during a stroll—
/1

1 1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 5d

An "Argument" is any process of thought reasonably tending to produce a definite belief. An "Argumentation" is an Argument proceeding upon definitely formulated premisses.

1 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 5d

Take for illustration the sensation undergone by a child that puts its forefinger into a flame with the acquisition of a habit of keeping all its members out of all flames.

1 1

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 5d

I use the word "self-controlled" for "controlled by the thinker's self," and not for "uncontrolled" except in its own spontaneous, i.e. automatic, self-development, as Professor J. M. Baldwin uses the word.

1 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 5d

An "Experience" is a brutally produced conscious effect that contributes to a habit, self-controlled, yet so satisfying, on deliberation, as to be destructible by no positive exercise of internal vigour.

2 2

Charles S. Peirce @charlespeirce.bsky.social · 5d

The "Actual" is that which is met with in the past, present, or future.

1 1