Home / Quotes / Quote by Charles Sanders Peirce

Quote by Charles Sanders Peirce

“I think of consciousness as a bottomless lake, whose waters seem transparent, yet into which we can clearly see but a little way.But in this water there are countless objects at different depths; and certain influences will give certain kinds of those objects an upward influence which may be intense enough and continue long enough to bring them into the upper visible layer. After the impulse ceases they commence to sink downwards.”

Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

Work

Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce

The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce is a seminal work that gathers together the extensive and varied writings of one of the most influential thinkers of the 19th century. The collection offers insights into Peirce's contributions to the development of pragmatism, semiotics, and the philosophy of science. It includes his seminal essay 'How to Make Our Ideas Clear,' as well as numerous other works that explore the nature of truth, the role of the individual in knowledge, and the structure of scientific inquiry. more

Author

Charles Sanders Peirce

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. more

“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.”

Mind Firsts Persons Ideas Sometimes Objects Capacity Addresses Stand For Something

Book:Collected Papers

Source: Collected Papers

“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.”

Way States Form Force Mankind Dangerous Ought Authority Mass Method Various Convinced Reasoning Organized

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

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

“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

“Three elements go to make up an idea. The first is its intrinsic quality as a feeling. The second is the energy with which it affects other ideas, an energy which is infinite in the here-and-nowness of immediate sensation, finite and relative in the recency of the past. The third element is the tendency of an idea to bring along other ideas with it.”