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Chauncey Wright Biography

Philosopher

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“The very hope of experimental philosophy, its expectation of constructing the sciences into a true philosophy of nature, is basedon induction, or, if you please, the a priori presumption, that physical causation is universal; that the constitution of nature is written in its actual manifestations, and needs only to be deciphered by experimental and inductive research; that it is not a latent invisible writing, to be brought out by the magic of mental anticipation or metaphysical mediation.”

IfsNeedsWritingPhilosophyScienceWrittenMagicPleaseResearchExpectationsUniversalConstitutionInvisibleManifestationAnticipationMetaphysicalPresumptionLatentMediationCausation
Book:Darwinism: Being an Examination of Mr. St. George Mivart's 'Genesis of Species'
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“A fact is a proposition of which the verification by an appeal to the primary sources of our knowledge or to experience is directand simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true, has all the characteristics of a fact except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means.”

IfsMeanFactsHandsDifficultSimpleTheorySourcePrimariesAppealsCharacteristicsPropositionsIndirectVerificationPrimary Source
Book:Philosphical Discussions
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“In the scale of life there is a gradual decline in physical variability, as the organism has gathered into itself resources for meeting the exigencies of changing external conditions; and that while in the mindless and motionless plant these resources are at a minimum, their maximum is reached in the mind of man, which, at length, rises to a level with the total order and powers of nature, and in its scientific comprehension of nature is a summary, an epitome of the world.”

MenWorldMindOrderLevelsConditionsResourcesPlantMeetingsIntelligenceScalesLengthDeclineMinimumOrganismsMaximumComprehensionMindlessEpitomeSummaryPower Of NatureVariability
Author:Chauncey Wright
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“Science asks no questions about the ontological pedigree or a priori character of a theory, but is content to judge it by its performance; and it is thus that a knowledge of nature, having all the certainty which the senses are competent to inspire, has been attained--a knowledge which maintains a strict neutrality toward all philosophical systems and concerns itself not with the genesis or a priori grounds of ideas.”

Has BeensIdeasCharacterAsksInspireJudgingTheoryConcernPerformancesPhilosophicalSensesCertaintyStrictCompetentGenesisNeutralityPedigree
Book:Philosphical Discussions
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“All observers not laboring under hallucinations of the senses are agreed, or can be made to agree, about facts of sensible experience, through evidence toward which the intellect is merely passive, and over which the individual will and character have no control.”

MadeCharacterFactsIndividualEvidenceAgreeIntellectSensesSensiblePassiveObserversHallucinations
Book:The Evolutionary Philosophy of Chauncey Wright
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