Quotessence
Home / Authors / Charles Sanders Peirce
Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce Quotes

Philosopher

Filter quotes by topic

AllMenScienceFactsBeliefMayIfsMathematicsMindWayHas BeensLogicObjectsReasonReasoningThinkingDoeIdeasCertainFirstsMathematical

Famous Charles Sanders Peirce Quotes

“The difference between a pessimistic and an optimistic mind is of such controlling importance in regard to every intellectual function, and especially for the conduct of life, that it is out of the question to admit that both are normal, and the great majority of mankind are naturally optimistic.”

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

“A sign, or representamen, is something which stands to somebody for something in some respect or capacity. It addresses somebody,that is, creates in the mind of that person an equivalent sign, or perhaps a more developed sign. That sign which it creates I call the interpretant of the first sign. The sign stands for something, its object. It stands for that object, not in all respects, but in reference to a sort of idea, which I have sometimes called the ground of the representamen.”

MindFirstsPersonsIdeasSometimesObjectsCapacityAddressesStand For Something
Book:Collected Papers
Create image

“We shall do better to abandon the whole attempt to learn the truthunless we can trust to the human mind's having such a powerof guessing right that before very many hypotheses shall have been tried, intelligent guessing may be expected to lead us to one which will support all tests, leaving the vast majority of possible hypotheses unexamined.”

MindHumansMayHas BeensWholeScienceSupportTestsIntelligentMajorityLeavingExpectedAbandonHuman MindHypothesisGuessing
Author:Charles Sanders Peirce
Create image

“To suppose universal laws of nature capable of being apprehended by the mind and yet having no reason for their special forms, but standing inexplicable and irrational, is hardly a justifiable position. Uniformities are precisely the sort of facts that need to be accounted for. Law is par excellence the thing that wants a reason. Now the only possible way of accounting for the laws of nature, and for uniformity in general, is to suppose them results of evolution.”

WayWantNeedsMindReasonFactsFormLawResultsSpecialPositionEvolutionCapableStandingUniversalExcellenceNo ReasonIrrationalLaws Of NatureAccountingInexplicableUniformityUniversal Laws
Author:Charles Sanders Peirce
Create image

“Kepler's discovery would not have been possible without the doctrine of conics. Now contemporaries of Kepler-such penetrating minds as Descartes and Pascal-were abandoning the study of geometry ... because they said it was so UTTERLY USELESS. There was the future of the human race almost trembling in the balance; for had not the geometry of conic sections already been worked out in large measure, and had their opinion that only sciences apparently useful ought to be pursued, the nineteenth century would have had none of those characters which distinguish it from the ancien régime.”

MindHumansHas BeensSaidCharacterScienceRaceOpinionStudyCenturyOughtBalanceDiscoveryDoctrineUselessHuman RaceThey SaidSectionsPursuedGeometryNineteenth CenturyTremblingPascalKepler
Author:Charles Sanders Peirce
Create image