M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.001.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
The development of pragmatism is the most important achievement in the history of American philosophy. M. Gail Hamner here examines the European roots of the movement in a search for what makes ...
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The development of pragmatism is the most important achievement in the history of American philosophy. M. Gail Hamner here examines the European roots of the movement in a search for what makes pragmatism uniquely American. She argues that the inextricably American character of the pragmatism of such figures as Charles Sanders Peirce and William James lies in its often‐understated affirmation of America as a uniquely religious country with a God‐given mission, and as populated by God‐fearing citizens. By looking at European and British thinkers whom the pragmatists read, Hamner examines how pragmatism's notions of self, nation, and morality were formed in reaction to the work of these thinkers. She finds that the pervasive religiosity of nineteenth‐century American public language underlies Peirce's and James's resistance to aspects of the philosophy and science of their non‐American colleagues. This religiosity, Hamner shows, is linked strongly to the continuing rhetorical power of American Puritanism. Claims made for and about Puritanism were advanced throughout the nineteenth century as rallying cries for specific political, social, and individual changes. It was in this religiously and politically charged environment that Peirce and James received and reinterpreted non‐American voices. Hamner traces the development of pragmatism by analyzing the concepts of consciousness, causality, will, and belief in two German thinkers (Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt) and two Scottish thinkers (William Hamilton and Alexander Bain), and by examining how their ideas were appropriated by Peirce and James. The book is arranged in three main parts: Evolution of German psychology; Evolution of Scottish psychology; and Pragmatic reception of European psychology.Less
The development of pragmatism is the most important achievement in the history of American philosophy. M. Gail Hamner here examines the European roots of the movement in a search for what makes pragmatism uniquely American. She argues that the inextricably American character of the pragmatism of such figures as Charles Sanders Peirce and William James lies in its often‐understated affirmation of America as a uniquely religious country with a God‐given mission, and as populated by God‐fearing citizens. By looking at European and British thinkers whom the pragmatists read, Hamner examines how pragmatism's notions of self, nation, and morality were formed in reaction to the work of these thinkers. She finds that the pervasive religiosity of nineteenth‐century American public language underlies Peirce's and James's resistance to aspects of the philosophy and science of their non‐American colleagues. This religiosity, Hamner shows, is linked strongly to the continuing rhetorical power of American Puritanism. Claims made for and about Puritanism were advanced throughout the nineteenth century as rallying cries for specific political, social, and individual changes. It was in this religiously and politically charged environment that Peirce and James received and reinterpreted non‐American voices. Hamner traces the development of pragmatism by analyzing the concepts of consciousness, causality, will, and belief in two German thinkers (Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt) and two Scottish thinkers (William Hamilton and Alexander Bain), and by examining how their ideas were appropriated by Peirce and James. The book is arranged in three main parts: Evolution of German psychology; Evolution of Scottish psychology; and Pragmatic reception of European psychology.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.003.0007
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Charles Sanders Peirce was an American pragmatist whose notions of, and about community, inform not only his reformulation of ‘science’ and ontology but also the complex theory of continuity ...
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Charles Sanders Peirce was an American pragmatist whose notions of, and about community, inform not only his reformulation of ‘science’ and ontology but also the complex theory of continuity (synechism) that structures his pragmatism. Peirce's realism is examined through his theorizing of community and synechism, and an assessment of his attempt to reconcile Kant's idealism with British empiricism. One consequence of this reconciliation is a theory of truth that posits both the singleness of truth (a characteristic presumed by Hermann von Helmholtz and William Hamilton), and truth's infinite deferral in the light of the fallible modes of human perception and reasoning. Envisioning fallibilism as occurring always within and between communities of inquiry, Peirce develops the famous pragmatic supposition that truth is that which no one has a reason to disbelieve. The discussion of Peirce's realism includes his theory of generals and its resonance with Helmholtz's theory of the reality of natural laws; for both thinkers, the reality of a law (or general) differs from individual (and equally real) instances of that law, with the difference residing in Peirce's synechism, where Helmholtz attributes the reality of natural laws to the overarching action of causality.Less
Charles Sanders Peirce was an American pragmatist whose notions of, and about community, inform not only his reformulation of ‘science’ and ontology but also the complex theory of continuity (synechism) that structures his pragmatism. Peirce's realism is examined through his theorizing of community and synechism, and an assessment of his attempt to reconcile Kant's idealism with British empiricism. One consequence of this reconciliation is a theory of truth that posits both the singleness of truth (a characteristic presumed by Hermann von Helmholtz and William Hamilton), and truth's infinite deferral in the light of the fallible modes of human perception and reasoning. Envisioning fallibilism as occurring always within and between communities of inquiry, Peirce develops the famous pragmatic supposition that truth is that which no one has a reason to disbelieve. The discussion of Peirce's realism includes his theory of generals and its resonance with Helmholtz's theory of the reality of natural laws; for both thinkers, the reality of a law (or general) differs from individual (and equally real) instances of that law, with the difference residing in Peirce's synechism, where Helmholtz attributes the reality of natural laws to the overarching action of causality.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.003.0009
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
The chapters in part III of the book (on the American pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce and William James) began with psychological concepts and ended with discussions of self, God, and nation, but ...
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The chapters in part III of the book (on the American pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce and William James) began with psychological concepts and ended with discussions of self, God, and nation, but this chapter inverts the direction of analysis, and offers a close reading of lectures written almost contemporaneously by James and Peirce. First, James's Puritan image of self, God, and nation is clarified, and then it is argued how these visions arise out of and/or parallel to James's understandings of consciousness, causality, will, and belief. Having established that Jamesian pragmatism delineates a strong version of the myth of the American self, the chapter concludes with a reading of Peirce that demonstrates how his pragmatism offers an alternate version of this myth. Peirce stands as the operative unthought of James; his views on self and nation engage the Puritan imagery as surely as those of James, but with less triumphalism and more humility. Perhaps the recent renewed interest in Peirce's complicated vision of the world can be attributed, at least in part, to precisely this sobriety and to the alternative genealogy he offers of the self and its relations to community and the cosmos.Less
The chapters in part III of the book (on the American pragmatists Charles Sanders Peirce and William James) began with psychological concepts and ended with discussions of self, God, and nation, but this chapter inverts the direction of analysis, and offers a close reading of lectures written almost contemporaneously by James and Peirce. First, James's Puritan image of self, God, and nation is clarified, and then it is argued how these visions arise out of and/or parallel to James's understandings of consciousness, causality, will, and belief. Having established that Jamesian pragmatism delineates a strong version of the myth of the American self, the chapter concludes with a reading of Peirce that demonstrates how his pragmatism offers an alternate version of this myth. Peirce stands as the operative unthought of James; his views on self and nation engage the Puritan imagery as surely as those of James, but with less triumphalism and more humility. Perhaps the recent renewed interest in Peirce's complicated vision of the world can be attributed, at least in part, to precisely this sobriety and to the alternative genealogy he offers of the self and its relations to community and the cosmos.
Gesche Linde
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823267576
- eISBN:
- 9780823272389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823267576.003.0010
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter explores some of the semiotic presuppositions and implications of Charles Sanders Peirce's philosophy of religion from the perspective of his semiotic final draft of 1905. More ...
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This chapter explores some of the semiotic presuppositions and implications of Charles Sanders Peirce's philosophy of religion from the perspective of his semiotic final draft of 1905. More specifically, it examines religion in the individual and the relation between religion and community within the context of semiotics. It considers Peirce's concept of perception, whereby he claims that perception is the semiotic process that leads from a percept to a perceptual judgment, thereby imbuing sensual immediateness with semantic value, and that it is perception through which religion originates in the individual. It also discusses the way that the perception thesis offers Peirce manifold explanatory force to come to terms with religion as well as Peirce's claim that religious experience has an intrinsically social character. Finally, it highlights the intrinsic epistemological problems of the perception thesis and introduces Peirce's concept of abduction as a means of solving these problems.Less
This chapter explores some of the semiotic presuppositions and implications of Charles Sanders Peirce's philosophy of religion from the perspective of his semiotic final draft of 1905. More specifically, it examines religion in the individual and the relation between religion and community within the context of semiotics. It considers Peirce's concept of perception, whereby he claims that perception is the semiotic process that leads from a percept to a perceptual judgment, thereby imbuing sensual immediateness with semantic value, and that it is perception through which religion originates in the individual. It also discusses the way that the perception thesis offers Peirce manifold explanatory force to come to terms with religion as well as Peirce's claim that religious experience has an intrinsically social character. Finally, it highlights the intrinsic epistemological problems of the perception thesis and introduces Peirce's concept of abduction as a means of solving these problems.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.003.0003
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter and the next deals with the texts of two German thinkers who were widely read by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James – the German psychologists Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm ...
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This chapter and the next deals with the texts of two German thinkers who were widely read by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James – the German psychologists Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt. They clarify the connections and differences between America and Europe, and specify the connections between science and philosophy in ways that intersect with the Puritan questions of identity, ethics, and politics. The work of von Helmholtz (with which that of Peirce has some parallels) evinces an understanding of science and natural law that was only partially accepted by the pragmatists, their criticism pivoting on a refusal to understand scientific inquiry as being constitutively devoid of purposiveness (final causality). The focus here is on particular concepts employed by both pragmatism and its continental interlocutors before going on (in the last two chapters) to consider how the Americans transformed them. Of particular importance, as far as Helmholtz is concerned, is the concept of causality: first, an analysis is made of Helmholtz's theory of causation and his conviction that the theory reconciles German transcendentalism and British empiricism; and second, it is demonstrated how Helmholtz's ‘physical sign theory’ (Zeichentheorie) places his reflections on causality in a semiotic frame.Less
This chapter and the next deals with the texts of two German thinkers who were widely read by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James – the German psychologists Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt. They clarify the connections and differences between America and Europe, and specify the connections between science and philosophy in ways that intersect with the Puritan questions of identity, ethics, and politics. The work of von Helmholtz (with which that of Peirce has some parallels) evinces an understanding of science and natural law that was only partially accepted by the pragmatists, their criticism pivoting on a refusal to understand scientific inquiry as being constitutively devoid of purposiveness (final causality). The focus here is on particular concepts employed by both pragmatism and its continental interlocutors before going on (in the last two chapters) to consider how the Americans transformed them. Of particular importance, as far as Helmholtz is concerned, is the concept of causality: first, an analysis is made of Helmholtz's theory of causation and his conviction that the theory reconciles German transcendentalism and British empiricism; and second, it is demonstrated how Helmholtz's ‘physical sign theory’ (Zeichentheorie) places his reflections on causality in a semiotic frame.
Charles Peirce and Anna Katharine Green
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804775359
- eISBN:
- 9780804778459
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804775359.003.0004
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter examines pragmatism by focusing on two writers who rely on chance to conduct their investigations: Charles Sanders Peirce and Anna Katharine Green. It looks at Green's detective fiction ...
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This chapter examines pragmatism by focusing on two writers who rely on chance to conduct their investigations: Charles Sanders Peirce and Anna Katharine Green. It looks at Green's detective fiction (including The Woman in the Alcove) in relation to Peirce's account of his own sleuthing after a stolen watch (“Guessing”) and shows that both writers had difficulty reconciling a socializing conception of chance with narrative forms that are, by definition, highly teleological. The chapter first traces the development of Peirce's conception of absolute chance out of his earlier and more cautious claims about probability theory and pragmatic contingency, along with his gradual transition from pragmatism in the 1870s to a more traditional metaphysics later. It then considers Green's chance-saturated fiction which, like that of Peirce, encounters the problem of representing chance in a genre destined to demystify crime in the end. The chapter concludes by looking at a third detective writer interested in chance, Edgar Allan Poe.Less
This chapter examines pragmatism by focusing on two writers who rely on chance to conduct their investigations: Charles Sanders Peirce and Anna Katharine Green. It looks at Green's detective fiction (including The Woman in the Alcove) in relation to Peirce's account of his own sleuthing after a stolen watch (“Guessing”) and shows that both writers had difficulty reconciling a socializing conception of chance with narrative forms that are, by definition, highly teleological. The chapter first traces the development of Peirce's conception of absolute chance out of his earlier and more cautious claims about probability theory and pragmatic contingency, along with his gradual transition from pragmatism in the 1870s to a more traditional metaphysics later. It then considers Green's chance-saturated fiction which, like that of Peirce, encounters the problem of representing chance in a genre destined to demystify crime in the end. The chapter concludes by looking at a third detective writer interested in chance, Edgar Allan Poe.
Albert E. Moyer
- Published in print:
- 1992
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520076891
- eISBN:
- 9780520912137
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520076891.003.0004
- Subject:
- Anthropology, American and Canadian Cultural Anthropology
This chapter discusses Newcomb's interactions as a young man with Chauncey Wright and Charles Sanders Peirce. It is difficult to distinguish the influence on Newcomb of Comte, Darwin, and Mill from ...
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This chapter discusses Newcomb's interactions as a young man with Chauncey Wright and Charles Sanders Peirce. It is difficult to distinguish the influence on Newcomb of Comte, Darwin, and Mill from the influence of his colleague and friend, Chauncey Wright (1830–1875). The confusion results because Wright advocated elements from the outlooks of all three of the European thinkers. Charles Peirce once characterized Wright, for example, as being “one of the most acute of the followers of J. S. Mill.” The issue of influence is further complicated in that ideas did not always flow from the older and more experienced philosopher, Wright, to the unseasoned newcomer. Although never a match for Wright in philosophical breadth and subtlety, Newcomb contributed, at least on one occasion, to the developing ideas of the two men.Less
This chapter discusses Newcomb's interactions as a young man with Chauncey Wright and Charles Sanders Peirce. It is difficult to distinguish the influence on Newcomb of Comte, Darwin, and Mill from the influence of his colleague and friend, Chauncey Wright (1830–1875). The confusion results because Wright advocated elements from the outlooks of all three of the European thinkers. Charles Peirce once characterized Wright, for example, as being “one of the most acute of the followers of J. S. Mill.” The issue of influence is further complicated in that ideas did not always flow from the older and more experienced philosopher, Wright, to the unseasoned newcomer. Although never a match for Wright in philosophical breadth and subtlety, Newcomb contributed, at least on one occasion, to the developing ideas of the two men.
Vincent Colapietro
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823267576
- eISBN:
- 9780823272389
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823267576.003.0011
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter explores Charles Sanders Peirce's reflections on individuality, community, religion, and the social self. The social self is a transfigured agent, and central to this transfiguration is ...
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This chapter explores Charles Sanders Peirce's reflections on individuality, community, religion, and the social self. The social self is a transfigured agent, and central to this transfiguration is reflexivity. However, there are no inherent bounds to the depths of this emergent reflexivity, just as there are not intrinsic limits to the scope of our sociality. This chapter first considers Peirce's nuanced account of the individual self before discussing the most important respects in which a religious life, as defined by Peirce, is relevant to an adequate conception of individual selfhood. It then examines the notion that the human animal is a functionally unified agent but becomes a personal agent by the incorporation of norms and ideals. Such teleological unity culminates in a transfiguration of our duties, and the chapter looks at Peirce's contention that religion is the primary medium of this transfiguration. The chapter concludes by assessing the complex relationship between traditional religions, such as Christianity, and the ongoing task of cultivating a genuinely critical sensibility.Less
This chapter explores Charles Sanders Peirce's reflections on individuality, community, religion, and the social self. The social self is a transfigured agent, and central to this transfiguration is reflexivity. However, there are no inherent bounds to the depths of this emergent reflexivity, just as there are not intrinsic limits to the scope of our sociality. This chapter first considers Peirce's nuanced account of the individual self before discussing the most important respects in which a religious life, as defined by Peirce, is relevant to an adequate conception of individual selfhood. It then examines the notion that the human animal is a functionally unified agent but becomes a personal agent by the incorporation of norms and ideals. Such teleological unity culminates in a transfiguration of our duties, and the chapter looks at Peirce's contention that religion is the primary medium of this transfiguration. The chapter concludes by assessing the complex relationship between traditional religions, such as Christianity, and the ongoing task of cultivating a genuinely critical sensibility.
Francis E. Reilly S. J.
- Published in print:
- 1970
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823208807
- eISBN:
- 9780823284726
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823208807.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter is a brief look at the life and work of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). In his youth his style was vigorous and cryptic; but during his later years he composed with brilliance and ...
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This chapter is a brief look at the life and work of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). In his youth his style was vigorous and cryptic; but during his later years he composed with brilliance and freedom, and even looseness, with less care for accuracy than during his early days. As both a philosopher and a scientist Peirce studied the universe, using the work of previous philosophers and the method of the sciences to guide his conjectures about its constitution. For him the method of the sciences was not only a tool employed in examining nature, but was also the direct object of his careful study. A lifelong associate of scientists, Peirce says that he devoted many years to the study of the methods employed by them. He brought to this study a developed power for philosophical thought on the nature of knowledge and the methods of acquiring it. However, though he was a prolific writer, he did not succeed in publishing a book on any of the important topics which interested him, including philosophy. And although he dreamed of major composition, none of the great topics of interest to him ever received adequate treatment in a single work.Less
This chapter is a brief look at the life and work of Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914). In his youth his style was vigorous and cryptic; but during his later years he composed with brilliance and freedom, and even looseness, with less care for accuracy than during his early days. As both a philosopher and a scientist Peirce studied the universe, using the work of previous philosophers and the method of the sciences to guide his conjectures about its constitution. For him the method of the sciences was not only a tool employed in examining nature, but was also the direct object of his careful study. A lifelong associate of scientists, Peirce says that he devoted many years to the study of the methods employed by them. He brought to this study a developed power for philosophical thought on the nature of knowledge and the methods of acquiring it. However, though he was a prolific writer, he did not succeed in publishing a book on any of the important topics which interested him, including philosophy. And although he dreamed of major composition, none of the great topics of interest to him ever received adequate treatment in a single work.
Ryan White
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231171007
- eISBN:
- 9780231539593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231171007.003.0006
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Charles S. Peirce declares that the individual amounts to no more than a “negation.” In this chapter, that remark triggers a comparison of Peirce’s semiotics to Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction and ...
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Charles S. Peirce declares that the individual amounts to no more than a “negation.” In this chapter, that remark triggers a comparison of Peirce’s semiotics to Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction and Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. In all three cases it is argued that humanist presumptions of communication are abandoned in favor of a posthumanist theory of communication in which human consciousness is totally excluded from participation in systems of communication but instead acts as their occluded environment, the “negation” or exclusion which makes communication possible.Less
Charles S. Peirce declares that the individual amounts to no more than a “negation.” In this chapter, that remark triggers a comparison of Peirce’s semiotics to Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction and Niklas Luhmann’s social systems theory. In all three cases it is argued that humanist presumptions of communication are abandoned in favor of a posthumanist theory of communication in which human consciousness is totally excluded from participation in systems of communication but instead acts as their occluded environment, the “negation” or exclusion which makes communication possible.
Stefan Helmreich, Sophia Roosth, and Michele Friedner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691164809
- eISBN:
- 9781400873869
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691164809.003.0010
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Social and Cultural Anthropology
This chapter examines how digital media represent seawater, relying upon, but also making invisible, the built infrastructures—commercial, political, military—that have permitted the oceanic world to ...
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This chapter examines how digital media represent seawater, relying upon, but also making invisible, the built infrastructures—commercial, political, military—that have permitted the oceanic world to be described as something like a “global ocean” in the first place. Drawing on the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, it explores how Earth and its ocean, as they have been ported into the digital, have become a confusing mixture of different kinds of signs—the sorts Peirce would have called indexes, icons, and symbols. It considers a kindred image-object, Google Ocean, and how Google Earth politics is connected to it, as well as what sort of representation of the planetary sea is in the making in these digital days. It argues that Google Ocean is a mottled mash of icons, indexes, and symbols of the marine and maritime world as well as a simultaneously dystopian and utopian diagram of the sea.Less
This chapter examines how digital media represent seawater, relying upon, but also making invisible, the built infrastructures—commercial, political, military—that have permitted the oceanic world to be described as something like a “global ocean” in the first place. Drawing on the work of Charles Sanders Peirce, it explores how Earth and its ocean, as they have been ported into the digital, have become a confusing mixture of different kinds of signs—the sorts Peirce would have called indexes, icons, and symbols. It considers a kindred image-object, Google Ocean, and how Google Earth politics is connected to it, as well as what sort of representation of the planetary sea is in the making in these digital days. It argues that Google Ocean is a mottled mash of icons, indexes, and symbols of the marine and maritime world as well as a simultaneously dystopian and utopian diagram of the sea.
Vincent G. Potter
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823216154
- eISBN:
- 9780823284832
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823216154.003.0002
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter focuses on Charles Sanders Peirce's sojourn in England in the 1870s. It also shows the influence on his work of three philosophers from the British Isles—John Duns Scotus, William ...
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This chapter focuses on Charles Sanders Peirce's sojourn in England in the 1870s. It also shows the influence on his work of three philosophers from the British Isles—John Duns Scotus, William Whewell, and Alexander Bain. These three were chosen not only because of their impact on Peirce's pragmatism, but also because their influence on him is less well known than that of John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume—Peirce's so-called “British Connection.” Even so, the chapter shows how Peirce is not simply a British philosopher who happened to grow up in the Colonies. His pragmatism has a distinctively American spirit about it. That spirit, put roughly, was that ideas, if they are to merit serious attention, must be practical.Less
This chapter focuses on Charles Sanders Peirce's sojourn in England in the 1870s. It also shows the influence on his work of three philosophers from the British Isles—John Duns Scotus, William Whewell, and Alexander Bain. These three were chosen not only because of their impact on Peirce's pragmatism, but also because their influence on him is less well known than that of John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume—Peirce's so-called “British Connection.” Even so, the chapter shows how Peirce is not simply a British philosopher who happened to grow up in the Colonies. His pragmatism has a distinctively American spirit about it. That spirit, put roughly, was that ideas, if they are to merit serious attention, must be practical.
Roger A. Ward and Roger A. Ward
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823223138
- eISBN:
- 9780823284740
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823223138.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter begins by evaluating several avenues of connecting C. S. Peirce’s philosophical program and religious conversion. Next, it turns to an exposition of Peirce’s understanding of habit and ...
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This chapter begins by evaluating several avenues of connecting C. S. Peirce’s philosophical program and religious conversion. Next, it turns to an exposition of Peirce’s understanding of habit and habit change. This position of an ultimate habit change incorporates the conclusions of three essays in an argument for a holistic orientation of the thinker fully engaged in self-controlled inquiry. These include the change represented by personality and a belief in a personal creator in “The Law of Mind”; the argument for emulating agapistic inquiry in “Evolutionary Love”; and the belief and logical testing of the reality of God in “A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God.” The chapter concludes with a criticism of Peirce’s habit change to a “super-order,” as he describes it, and examines several ways to advance Peirce’s approach to conversion.Less
This chapter begins by evaluating several avenues of connecting C. S. Peirce’s philosophical program and religious conversion. Next, it turns to an exposition of Peirce’s understanding of habit and habit change. This position of an ultimate habit change incorporates the conclusions of three essays in an argument for a holistic orientation of the thinker fully engaged in self-controlled inquiry. These include the change represented by personality and a belief in a personal creator in “The Law of Mind”; the argument for emulating agapistic inquiry in “Evolutionary Love”; and the belief and logical testing of the reality of God in “A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God.” The chapter concludes with a criticism of Peirce’s habit change to a “super-order,” as he describes it, and examines several ways to advance Peirce’s approach to conversion.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.003.0001
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
American pragmatism is about the only philosophical movement indigenous to the U.S.A., but the question of what is American about it has never really received sustained attention. This is what this ...
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American pragmatism is about the only philosophical movement indigenous to the U.S.A., but the question of what is American about it has never really received sustained attention. This is what this book sets out to do by means of an analysis of the works of two classical American pragmatists (Charles Sanders Peirce and William James) and their continental interlocutors. In answering the question, the book takes the form of a double project: first, American pragmatism marks a repositioning of British and European science, especially psychology, within theories of human knowing and being that emphasize the purposive and disciplined production of the self through habits (Peirce) or will (James); second, the engine of this repositioning is something the author terms America's slippery but persistent Puritan imaginary. The two aspects of the project come together in narratives about subjectivity (in the final two chapters on Peirce and James), since applying the methods and assumptions of natural science to the human self (in psychology) highlights the limitations and aporias of those methods and principles and, for the early pragmatists at least, underscores the necessity of religion. In addition to explaining the context of the book, this introduction describes its organization, the situation in which the philosophy of American pragmatism developed, and the methodology adopted by the book.Less
American pragmatism is about the only philosophical movement indigenous to the U.S.A., but the question of what is American about it has never really received sustained attention. This is what this book sets out to do by means of an analysis of the works of two classical American pragmatists (Charles Sanders Peirce and William James) and their continental interlocutors. In answering the question, the book takes the form of a double project: first, American pragmatism marks a repositioning of British and European science, especially psychology, within theories of human knowing and being that emphasize the purposive and disciplined production of the self through habits (Peirce) or will (James); second, the engine of this repositioning is something the author terms America's slippery but persistent Puritan imaginary. The two aspects of the project come together in narratives about subjectivity (in the final two chapters on Peirce and James), since applying the methods and assumptions of natural science to the human self (in psychology) highlights the limitations and aporias of those methods and principles and, for the early pragmatists at least, underscores the necessity of religion. In addition to explaining the context of the book, this introduction describes its organization, the situation in which the philosophy of American pragmatism developed, and the methodology adopted by the book.
Vincent G. Potter
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823216154
- eISBN:
- 9780823284832
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823216154.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter investigates Charles Sanders Peirce's interest in the normative sciences. Although logic received most of Peirce's attention throughout his long career, he was always interested in ...
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This chapter investigates Charles Sanders Peirce's interest in the normative sciences. Although logic received most of Peirce's attention throughout his long career, he was always interested in ethical systems. Until the 1880s, however, he considered ethics to be nothing more than an art or a practical science which relied little upon theoretical principles. It should be remembered that the first formulation of the pragmatic maxim and his analysis of belief in terms of what one is willing to act upon appeared in the 1870s. Pierce says that he began to see the importance of ethical theory around 1882. As a result of this illumination he undertook a serious study of the great moralists and began to suspect that there was some important connection between ethics and logic.Less
This chapter investigates Charles Sanders Peirce's interest in the normative sciences. Although logic received most of Peirce's attention throughout his long career, he was always interested in ethical systems. Until the 1880s, however, he considered ethics to be nothing more than an art or a practical science which relied little upon theoretical principles. It should be remembered that the first formulation of the pragmatic maxim and his analysis of belief in terms of what one is willing to act upon appeared in the 1870s. Pierce says that he began to see the importance of ethical theory around 1882. As a result of this illumination he undertook a serious study of the great moralists and began to suspect that there was some important connection between ethics and logic.
Peter Hare
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780823264322
- eISBN:
- 9780823266777
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823264322.003.0005
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This chapter pays tribute to Frederic Harold Young (1905–2003), who served as minister of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, and was a Wyman Fellow in Philosophy at Princeton ...
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This chapter pays tribute to Frederic Harold Young (1905–2003), who served as minister of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, and was a Wyman Fellow in Philosophy at Princeton University. On October 15, 1945, Young delivered to the Pike County Historical Society in Milford, Pennsylvania, an address entitled “Charles Sanders Peirce: America's Greatest Logician and Most Original Philosopher.” The speech not only reveals much of Young's own approach to Peirce and highlights Peirce's achievements in logic and philosophy, but also tells us about the attitudes toward Peirce of several eminent philosophers of that day. Young's paper is important to the background of the founding of the Charles S. Peirce Society.Less
This chapter pays tribute to Frederic Harold Young (1905–2003), who served as minister of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Newark, New Jersey, and was a Wyman Fellow in Philosophy at Princeton University. On October 15, 1945, Young delivered to the Pike County Historical Society in Milford, Pennsylvania, an address entitled “Charles Sanders Peirce: America's Greatest Logician and Most Original Philosopher.” The speech not only reveals much of Young's own approach to Peirce and highlights Peirce's achievements in logic and philosophy, but also tells us about the attitudes toward Peirce of several eminent philosophers of that day. Young's paper is important to the background of the founding of the Charles S. Peirce Society.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.003.0005
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
Demonstrates the resonance between Charles Sanders Peirce (the American pragmatist) and William Hamilton (a Scottish professor of logic and metaphysics), which can be outlined in three ways: first, ...
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Demonstrates the resonance between Charles Sanders Peirce (the American pragmatist) and William Hamilton (a Scottish professor of logic and metaphysics), which can be outlined in three ways: first, both men present a philosophy that balances Kant's idealism with T.H. Reid's naturalism (Peirce calls this task a ‘critical common‐sensism’); second, they both discuss questions of faith in a manner that implies a transcendent or cosmological perspective; and third, they exhibit a focused interest in logic. However, the pragmatist always evinces slightly different priorities: while Hamilton remains a committed nominalist throughout his writings, Peirce attempts to reconcile Kant and British empiricism as part of his larger argument against nominalism; while Hamilton maintains a Calvinist trinitarianism, Peirce's musings on questions of faith direct him closer to Spinoza's panentheism; and finally, while Hamilton's logic remains an important but separate line of philosophical inquiry, Peirce develops a logic of relations that conjoins his interest in logic to his semiotic and phenomenology, and thus becomes a pervasive part of his philosophy. After giving a brief exposition of the main points of his philosophy, the discussion of Hamilton examines how relativity, conditionality, and free will inform his statements about causality, consciousness, belief, and action. Of greatest interest is how the concept of consciousness relates to the concept of belief, such that the former acts as the guarantor of the latter.Less
Demonstrates the resonance between Charles Sanders Peirce (the American pragmatist) and William Hamilton (a Scottish professor of logic and metaphysics), which can be outlined in three ways: first, both men present a philosophy that balances Kant's idealism with T.H. Reid's naturalism (Peirce calls this task a ‘critical common‐sensism’); second, they both discuss questions of faith in a manner that implies a transcendent or cosmological perspective; and third, they exhibit a focused interest in logic. However, the pragmatist always evinces slightly different priorities: while Hamilton remains a committed nominalist throughout his writings, Peirce attempts to reconcile Kant and British empiricism as part of his larger argument against nominalism; while Hamilton maintains a Calvinist trinitarianism, Peirce's musings on questions of faith direct him closer to Spinoza's panentheism; and finally, while Hamilton's logic remains an important but separate line of philosophical inquiry, Peirce develops a logic of relations that conjoins his interest in logic to his semiotic and phenomenology, and thus becomes a pervasive part of his philosophy. After giving a brief exposition of the main points of his philosophy, the discussion of Hamilton examines how relativity, conditionality, and free will inform his statements about causality, consciousness, belief, and action. Of greatest interest is how the concept of consciousness relates to the concept of belief, such that the former acts as the guarantor of the latter.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
The first concern of this chapter is to present the phenomenology of belief of the Scottish philosopher Alexander Bain in order to delineate the relations he asserts among belief, consciousness, and ...
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The first concern of this chapter is to present the phenomenology of belief of the Scottish philosopher Alexander Bain in order to delineate the relations he asserts among belief, consciousness, and action; these are the most direct ways in which Bain becomes an interlocutor of the pragmatists. Of special emphasis in this regard is action, which the American pragmatists mutate into concepts of behavior (Charles Sanders Peirce) and willed effects (William James). The relations of belief, consciousness, and action can be interpreted in many ways, some of which emphasize the importance of a person's character (developed dispositions) and others of which do not; the distinction displays itself in Bain's theory of causality, a term he divides into a psychological concept and a scientific concept. On the one hand, in insisting on the importance of character, Bain shares Peirce's desire to focus on conduct rather than on individual acts, but on the other hand, his confusing resolution of the complexities of causality into a dual scheme that separates psychology from science, foreshadows the way James attempts to secure a proper realm for scientific inquiry in The Principles of Psychology with a similar use of dualities. Thus, the second concern in the chapter is to expound on the relations of will, causality, and action as substantiated by Bain through his theories of psychological association and the law of relativity.Less
The first concern of this chapter is to present the phenomenology of belief of the Scottish philosopher Alexander Bain in order to delineate the relations he asserts among belief, consciousness, and action; these are the most direct ways in which Bain becomes an interlocutor of the pragmatists. Of special emphasis in this regard is action, which the American pragmatists mutate into concepts of behavior (Charles Sanders Peirce) and willed effects (William James). The relations of belief, consciousness, and action can be interpreted in many ways, some of which emphasize the importance of a person's character (developed dispositions) and others of which do not; the distinction displays itself in Bain's theory of causality, a term he divides into a psychological concept and a scientific concept. On the one hand, in insisting on the importance of character, Bain shares Peirce's desire to focus on conduct rather than on individual acts, but on the other hand, his confusing resolution of the complexities of causality into a dual scheme that separates psychology from science, foreshadows the way James attempts to secure a proper realm for scientific inquiry in The Principles of Psychology with a similar use of dualities. Thus, the second concern in the chapter is to expound on the relations of will, causality, and action as substantiated by Bain through his theories of psychological association and the law of relativity.
Ryan White
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- January 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780231171007
- eISBN:
- 9780231539593
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231171007.003.0003
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion
Pragmatism has from the beginning moved along two separate paths. On one side is the “pure experience” evoked by William James while on the other is the impersonal semiotic machinery of Charles ...
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Pragmatism has from the beginning moved along two separate paths. On one side is the “pure experience” evoked by William James while on the other is the impersonal semiotic machinery of Charles Sanders Peirce. Jamesian pragmatism, however, gestures towards the contingency of theory by claiming a space of self-exception while Peirce’s “pragmaticism” moves more decisively towards an embrace of radical contingency by theorizing a reality that remains (as yet) unknown. That is, Peirce’s pragmatism is able to theorize its own limitation. Turning to Peirce thus entails a turn to a posthumanist form of pragmatic thinking.Less
Pragmatism has from the beginning moved along two separate paths. On one side is the “pure experience” evoked by William James while on the other is the impersonal semiotic machinery of Charles Sanders Peirce. Jamesian pragmatism, however, gestures towards the contingency of theory by claiming a space of self-exception while Peirce’s “pragmaticism” moves more decisively towards an embrace of radical contingency by theorizing a reality that remains (as yet) unknown. That is, Peirce’s pragmatism is able to theorize its own limitation. Turning to Peirce thus entails a turn to a posthumanist form of pragmatic thinking.
Vincent G. Potter
- Published in print:
- 1996
- Published Online:
- May 2019
- ISBN:
- 9780823216154
- eISBN:
- 9780823284832
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823216154.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
This book focuses primarily on Charles Sanders Peirce's realism, pragmatism, and theism, with attention to his tychism and synechism. It is a collection of the author's essays on Peirce. The essays ...
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This book focuses primarily on Charles Sanders Peirce's realism, pragmatism, and theism, with attention to his tychism and synechism. It is a collection of the author's essays on Peirce. The essays run counter to many selective readings of Peirce, including those encouraged by his friend and champion, William James. The influence of Bernard Lonergan and John E. Smith on the author is clear throughout. In the book, the author brought several distinctive assets to his scholarship. First, his appreciation and understanding of medieval philosophy enriched his discussion of John Duns Scotus's influence on Peirce's “scholastic realism.” Second, a background in the history of science and mathematics generated careful discussions of Peirce's analysis of probability in physics and of the continuum in mathematics. Finally, knowledge of theology yielded fruitful explorations of Peirce's argument of God's reality as vaguely like a man.Less
This book focuses primarily on Charles Sanders Peirce's realism, pragmatism, and theism, with attention to his tychism and synechism. It is a collection of the author's essays on Peirce. The essays run counter to many selective readings of Peirce, including those encouraged by his friend and champion, William James. The influence of Bernard Lonergan and John E. Smith on the author is clear throughout. In the book, the author brought several distinctive assets to his scholarship. First, his appreciation and understanding of medieval philosophy enriched his discussion of John Duns Scotus's influence on Peirce's “scholastic realism.” Second, a background in the history of science and mathematics generated careful discussions of Peirce's analysis of probability in physics and of the continuum in mathematics. Finally, knowledge of theology yielded fruitful explorations of Peirce's argument of God's reality as vaguely like a man.
