Home / Authors / Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce Quotes

Philosopher

Charles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher, logician, and scientist, born on September 10, 1839, and died on April 19, 1914. Known as the founder of modern symbolic logic, Peirce's philosophical ideas have had a profound impact on fields such as logic, philosophy of science, and cognitive science.

Filter quotes by topic

All Men Science Facts Belief May Ifs Mathematics Mind Way Has Beens Logic Objects Reason Reasoning Thinking Doe Ideas Certain Firsts Mathematical

Famous Charles Sanders Peirce Quotes

“Let it be considered that what is more wholesome than any particular belief is integrity of belief; and that to avoid looking into the support of any belief from a fear that it may turn out rotten is quite as immoral as it is disadvantageous.”

Belief Fear Integrity Immoral

Author:Charles Sanders Peirce

“A true proposition is a proposition belief which would never lead to such disappointment so long as the proposition is not understood otherwise than it was intended.”

Long Truth Belief Understood Disappointment Propositions

Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

Source: Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

“Truth is that concordance of an abstract statement with the ideal limit towards which endless investigation would tend to bring scientific belief, which concordance the abstract statement may possess by virtue of the confession of its inaccuracy and one-sidedness, and this confession is an essential ingredient of truth.”

May Truth Belief Virtue Truth Is Limits Essentials Ideals Endless Statements Abstract Ingredients Confession Investigation

Author:Charles Sanders Peirce

“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.”

Men Has Beens Stills Sometimes Facts Belief Findings Harmony Philosophical Philosopher Strikes Inquiring

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

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

“And what, then, is belief? It is the demi-cadence which closes a musical phrase in the symphony of our intellectual life.”

Belief Intellectual Musical Phrases Symphony Cadence Intellectual Life

Book:Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)

Source: Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)

“The a priori method is distinguished for its comfortable conclusions. It is the nature of the process to adopt whatever belief weare inclined to, and there are certain flatteries to the vanity of man which we all believe by nature, until we are awakened from our pleasing dream by rough facts.”

Men Believe Facts Dream Certain Belief Process Comfortable Method Conclusion Vanity Rough Flattery Distinguished Awakened

Author:Charles Sanders Peirce

“If an opinion can eventually go to the determination of a practical belief, it, in so far, becomes itself a practical belief; and every proposition that is not pure metaphysical jargon and chatter must have some possible bearing upon practice.”

Ifs Belief Opinion Practice Pure Determination Practicals Propositions Metaphysical Chatter Jargon

Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

Source: Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

“Whenever a man acts purposively, he acts under a belief in some experimental phenomenon. Consequently, the sum of the experimental phenomena that a proposition implies makes up its entire bearing upon human conduct.”

Men Humans Belief Phenomenon Propositions

Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

Source: Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

“The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit.”

Belief Habit Essence Establishment

Book:Peirce on Signs: Writings on Semiotic

Source: Peirce on Signs: Writings on Semiotic

“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.”

States Belief Wish Struggle Doubt Calm Latter Uneasy Dissatisfied

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

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

“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.”

Thinking Action Form Belief Influence Effects Exercise Finals Dues Stadiums Volition Future Thinking

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

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

“The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit; and different beliefs are distinguished by the different modes of action to which they give rise.”

Giving Different Action Belief Habit Essence Establishment Distinguished Different Beliefs

Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

Source: Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce