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The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)

Book by Charles Sanders Peirce · 17 quotes · Men, Belief, Ifs

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The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893) Quotes

“Still, it will sometimes strike a scientific man that the philosophers have been less intent on finding out what the facts are, than on inquiring what belief is most in harmony with their system.”

MenHas BeensStillsSometimesFactsBeliefFindingsHarmonyPhilosophicalPhilosopherStrikesInquiring
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“The truth is, that common-sense, or thought as it first emerges above the level of the narrowly practical, is deeply imbued with that bad logical quality to which the epithet metaphysical is commonly applied; and nothing can clear it up but a severe course of logic.”

FirstsCoursesLevelsCommonQualityClearTruth IsLogicPracticalsCommon SenseLogicalSevereMetaphysicalEpithet
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“It has often been argued that absolute scepticism is self-contradictory; but this is a mistake: and even if it were not so, it would be no argument against the absolute sceptic, inasmuch as he does not admit that no contradictory propositions are true. Indeed, it would be impossible to move such a man, for his scepticism consists in considering every argument and never deciding upon its validity; he would, therefore, act in this way in reference to the arguments brought against him.”

IfsMenWayDoeSelfWould BeMovingMistakeImpossibleArgumentAbsolutesSkepticismConsideringPropositionsContradictoryValidityScepticismSceptic
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“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.”

WayStatesFormForceMankindDangerousOughtAuthorityMassMethodVariousConvincedReasoningOrganized
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“Third, consider the insistency of an idea. The insistency of a past idea with reference to the present is a quantity which is less, the further back that past idea is, and rises to infinity as the past idea is brought up into coincidence with the present.”

IdeasPastThirdsInfinityQuantityCoincidence
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“It is terrible to see how a single unclear idea, a single formula without meaning, lurking in a young man's head, will sometimes act like an obstruction of inert matter in an artery, hindering the nutrition of the brain and condemning its victim to pine away in the fullness of his intellectual vigor and in the midst of intellectual plenty.”

MenIdeasSometimesMatterYoungBrainTerribleIntellectualVictimPlentyYoung ManMidstFormulasNutritionFullnessVigorLurkingCondemningObstructionArteriesUnclear
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“If man were immortal he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything in which he had trusted should betray his trust, and, in short, of coming eventually to hopeless misery. He would break down, at last, as every good fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death.”

IfsMenShouldDoeLastsDeathBreakSeeingAtheismCivilizationMiseryFortuneVery GoodImmortalHopelessDeath And DyingBetrayTrustedBreaking DownGood FortuneDying DeathDynastyDeath Coming
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“Every work of science great enough to be well remembered for a few generations affords some exemplification of the defective state of the art of reasoning of the time when it was written; and each chief step in science has been a lesson in logic.”

WellsHas BeensArtStatesEnoughScienceStepsWrittenGenerationsGreatnessHard WorkLessonsLogicChiefsRememberedReasoningDefective
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“Doubt is an uneasy and dissatisfied state from which we struggle to free ourselves and pass into the state of belief; while the latter is a calm and satisfactory state which we do not wish to avoid, or to change to a belief in anything else.”

StatesBeliefWishStruggleDoubtCalmLatterUneasyDissatisfied
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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“The final upshot of thinking is the exercise of volition, and of this thought no longer forms a part; but belief is only a stadium of mental action, an effect upon our nature due to thought, which will influence future thinking.”

ThinkingActionFormBeliefInfluenceEffectsExerciseFinalsDuesStadiumsVolitionFuture Thinking
Book:The Essential Peirce, Volume 1: Selected Philosophical Writings? (1867–1893)
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