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Quote by Charles Sanders Peirce

Work

Selected Writings (Values in a Universe of Chance)

This book is a compilation of various written works that delve into the philosophical concepts of value and meaning within the context of an uncertain and chance-filled universe. more

Author

Charles Sanders Peirce
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

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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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“Theoretically, I grant you, there is no possibility of error in necessary reasoning. But to speak thus "theoretically," is to uselanguage in a Pickwickian sense. In practice, and in fact, mathematics is not exempt from that liability to error that affects everything that man does.”

MenDoeFactsSpeakPracticePossibilityMathematicsErrorsCertaintyReasoningGrantsLiability
Book:Reasoning and the logic of things: the Cambridge conferences lectures of 1898
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“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.”

ThinkingWayGivingKindMayLittlesLongDifferentEnoughSeemsCertainWaterConsciousnessInfluenceObjectsDepthCeaseIntenseImpulseVisibleLakesLayersTransparent
Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce
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“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
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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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“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.”

FirstsIdeasFeelingsPastThreeEnergyQualityElementsThirdsInfiniteTendenciesSensationsCategoriesRelativeFinite
Book:Collected papers of Charles Sanders Peirce
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