Christopher Hookway
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780199256587
- eISBN:
- 9780191597718
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199256586.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
Charles Peirce's pragmatist philosophy contains important ideas for understanding the nature of epistemic rationality and rational self‐control. After a discussion of his views about the different ...
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Charles Peirce's pragmatist philosophy contains important ideas for understanding the nature of epistemic rationality and rational self‐control. After a discussion of his views about the different demands of theory and practice, the book explains his account of truth, before comparing it with the correspondence theory of truth and tracing its relations to his theory of indexical reference. This is followed by an investigation of his defence of a system of ‘scientific metaphysics’ and its role in rational inquiry. We then turn to a consideration of how his pragmatism and his account of rationality rest upon his acceptance of a modified version of the common‐sense philosophy. This theme in his thought leads him to emphasize the role of sentiments and emotions in epistemic evaluation, and this lies behind his distinctive views about doubt and about why we should not take scepticism seriously. The final two chapters of the book explore Peirce's argument for the reality of God and begin to address the question of how he thought his pragmatist philosophy could be proved.Less
Charles Peirce's pragmatist philosophy contains important ideas for understanding the nature of epistemic rationality and rational self‐control. After a discussion of his views about the different demands of theory and practice, the book explains his account of truth, before comparing it with the correspondence theory of truth and tracing its relations to his theory of indexical reference. This is followed by an investigation of his defence of a system of ‘scientific metaphysics’ and its role in rational inquiry. We then turn to a consideration of how his pragmatism and his account of rationality rest upon his acceptance of a modified version of the common‐sense philosophy. This theme in his thought leads him to emphasize the role of sentiments and emotions in epistemic evaluation, and this lies behind his distinctive views about doubt and about why we should not take scepticism seriously. The final two chapters of the book explore Peirce's argument for the reality of God and begin to address the question of how he thought his pragmatist philosophy could be proved.
Steven Kepnes
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195313819
- eISBN:
- 9780199785650
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195313819.003.0006
- Subject:
- Religion, Judaism
God is the central figure in the text of the prayer book, or Siddur; but God also presents a significant semiotic challenge. Indeed, God is a challenge to all linguistic and semiotic systems. How ...
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God is the central figure in the text of the prayer book, or Siddur; but God also presents a significant semiotic challenge. Indeed, God is a challenge to all linguistic and semiotic systems. How does one express and name the inexpressible? The argument in this chapter is that the prayer book is very aware of these issues and that it presents a series of sophisticated semiotic strategies to express and approach God. The analysis begins with an explication of C. S. Peirce's semiotics. The chapter then undertakes a semiotic analysis of the opening part of the daily morning service, the Birkhot Ha‐shahar. This includes analysis of scriptural verses, prayers, liturgical poems, Tallit, and Tefillin. The chapter ends with a semiosis of the Kaddish prayer for the dead.Less
God is the central figure in the text of the prayer book, or Siddur; but God also presents a significant semiotic challenge. Indeed, God is a challenge to all linguistic and semiotic systems. How does one express and name the inexpressible? The argument in this chapter is that the prayer book is very aware of these issues and that it presents a series of sophisticated semiotic strategies to express and approach God. The analysis begins with an explication of C. S. Peirce's semiotics. The chapter then undertakes a semiotic analysis of the opening part of the daily morning service, the Birkhot Ha‐shahar. This includes analysis of scriptural verses, prayers, liturgical poems, Tallit, and Tefillin. The chapter ends with a semiosis of the Kaddish prayer for the dead.
C. J. Misak
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- February 2006
- ISBN:
- 9780199270590
- eISBN:
- 9780191603174
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0199270597.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy
This book elucidates and defends C.S. Peirce’s pragmatist account of truth. Peirce was interested in exploring truth’s connections to the practices of inquiry, belief, and assertion. This distinctly ...
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This book elucidates and defends C.S. Peirce’s pragmatist account of truth. Peirce was interested in exploring truth’s connections to the practices of inquiry, belief, and assertion. This distinctly pragmatic project resulted in the view that truth is what would be agreed upon, were inquiry to be pursued as far as it could fruitfully go. The view that a belief is true if it would be indefeasible connects truth to human practices, but which takes truth to be something to be discovered. That is, Peirce’s view of truth is much more objectivist than some currently popular brands of pragmatism. In this expanded edition, advances in the understanding of Peirce’s theory of truth are noted, and include a new chapter which shows how Peirce’s view of truth is friendly to moral judgements.Less
This book elucidates and defends C.S. Peirce’s pragmatist account of truth. Peirce was interested in exploring truth’s connections to the practices of inquiry, belief, and assertion. This distinctly pragmatic project resulted in the view that truth is what would be agreed upon, were inquiry to be pursued as far as it could fruitfully go. The view that a belief is true if it would be indefeasible connects truth to human practices, but which takes truth to be something to be discovered. That is, Peirce’s view of truth is much more objectivist than some currently popular brands of pragmatism. In this expanded edition, advances in the understanding of Peirce’s theory of truth are noted, and include a new chapter which shows how Peirce’s view of truth is friendly to moral judgements.
Isaac Levi
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199698134
- eISBN:
- 9780191742323
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199698134.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, History of Philosophy
This volume presents a series of chapters which investigate the nature of intellectual inquiry: what its aims are and how it operates. The starting-point is the work of the American Pragmatists C. S. ...
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This volume presents a series of chapters which investigate the nature of intellectual inquiry: what its aims are and how it operates. The starting-point is the work of the American Pragmatists C. S. Peirce and John Dewey. Inquiry according to Peirce is a struggle to replace doubt by true belief. Dewey insisted that the transformation was from an indeterminate situation to a determinate or non-problematic one. This book's subject is changes in doxastic commitments, which may involve changes in attitudes or changes in situations in which attitudes are entangled. The question what justifies modification of doxastic commitments is a normative one, and so may not be understandable in purely naturalistic terms.Less
This volume presents a series of chapters which investigate the nature of intellectual inquiry: what its aims are and how it operates. The starting-point is the work of the American Pragmatists C. S. Peirce and John Dewey. Inquiry according to Peirce is a struggle to replace doubt by true belief. Dewey insisted that the transformation was from an indeterminate situation to a determinate or non-problematic one. This book's subject is changes in doxastic commitments, which may involve changes in attitudes or changes in situations in which attitudes are entangled. The question what justifies modification of doxastic commitments is a normative one, and so may not be understandable in purely naturalistic terms.
Christopher Hookway
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780199588381
- eISBN:
- 9780191745089
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199588381.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, History of Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1913) was the ‘founder of pragmatism’ and the most important and original American philosopher. He called himself a logician, making important contributions to the ...
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Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1913) was the ‘founder of pragmatism’ and the most important and original American philosopher. He called himself a logician, making important contributions to the development of formal logic and to the study of the normative standards we should follow in carrying out inquiries and enhancing our knowledge in science and mathematics. His range was extensive: he founded an developed the discipline of semeiotic, a systematic account of the nature of thought, language, and other kinds of signs, and, as a systematic philosopher, he worked on metaphysics. The first seven chapters explore the framework of his thought, especially his fallibilism and his rejection of scepticism, and his contributions to the pragmatist understanding of truth and reality. Like Frege and Husserl, among others, Peirce rejected psychologism and used phenomenological foundations to defend the system of categories for a system of category which made a non-psychological logic possible. The final three chapters are concerned with ‘the pragmatic maxim’, a rule for clarifying the contents of concepts and ideas. As well as exploring the content and role of this maxim, we study the different strategies Peirce employed to demonstrate the correctness of this maxim, and thus of pragmatism. As well as studying and evaluating Peirce’s views, the book discusses the relations between the views of Peirce and other pragmatist philosophers such as William James, C. I. Lewis, and Richard Rorty.Less
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1913) was the ‘founder of pragmatism’ and the most important and original American philosopher. He called himself a logician, making important contributions to the development of formal logic and to the study of the normative standards we should follow in carrying out inquiries and enhancing our knowledge in science and mathematics. His range was extensive: he founded an developed the discipline of semeiotic, a systematic account of the nature of thought, language, and other kinds of signs, and, as a systematic philosopher, he worked on metaphysics. The first seven chapters explore the framework of his thought, especially his fallibilism and his rejection of scepticism, and his contributions to the pragmatist understanding of truth and reality. Like Frege and Husserl, among others, Peirce rejected psychologism and used phenomenological foundations to defend the system of categories for a system of category which made a non-psychological logic possible. The final three chapters are concerned with ‘the pragmatic maxim’, a rule for clarifying the contents of concepts and ideas. As well as exploring the content and role of this maxim, we study the different strategies Peirce employed to demonstrate the correctness of this maxim, and thus of pragmatism. As well as studying and evaluating Peirce’s views, the book discusses the relations between the views of Peirce and other pragmatist philosophers such as William James, C. I. Lewis, and Richard Rorty.
Douglas Anderson and Carl Hausman
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780823234677
- eISBN:
- 9780823238842
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823234677.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, American Philosophy
The book is a collection of chapters on the work of Charles S. Peirce that grew out of conversations between the authors over the last decade and a half. The chapters focus primarily on Peirce's ...
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The book is a collection of chapters on the work of Charles S. Peirce that grew out of conversations between the authors over the last decade and a half. The chapters focus primarily on Peirce's consideration of realism and idealism as philosophical outlooks. Some deal directly with Peirce's accounts of realism and idealism; others look to the consequences of these accounts for other features of Peirce's overall philosophical system.Less
The book is a collection of chapters on the work of Charles S. Peirce that grew out of conversations between the authors over the last decade and a half. The chapters focus primarily on Peirce's consideration of realism and idealism as philosophical outlooks. Some deal directly with Peirce's accounts of realism and idealism; others look to the consequences of these accounts for other features of Peirce's overall philosophical system.
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.
Shoutir Kishore Chatterjee
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780198525318
- eISBN:
- 9780191711657
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198525318.003.0009
- Subject:
- Mathematics, Probability / Statistics
By the 1830s, as large volumes of official data were compiled and tabulated, frequential regularity exhibited by them inspired some mathematicians (Venn, C. S. Peirce) to develop the frequency theory ...
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By the 1830s, as large volumes of official data were compiled and tabulated, frequential regularity exhibited by them inspired some mathematicians (Venn, C. S. Peirce) to develop the frequency theory of probability and some others (Poisson, Quetelet) to apply the statistical tools of the ‘theory of errors’ to new fields. Among them, Quetelet extensively used the binomial and normal models to study demographic, judicial, and anthropometric data, but he was interested mainly in studying ‘true values’. Later, Galton, in course of studying heredity on the basis of biometric data, recognized the importance of variability and developed empirically bivariate regression, correlation, and the bivariate normal model. Edgeworth, Karl Pearson, and Yule extended Galton’s results and methods to the multivariate case. Empirical studies also led to the formulation of new problems of inference relating to correlation.Less
By the 1830s, as large volumes of official data were compiled and tabulated, frequential regularity exhibited by them inspired some mathematicians (Venn, C. S. Peirce) to develop the frequency theory of probability and some others (Poisson, Quetelet) to apply the statistical tools of the ‘theory of errors’ to new fields. Among them, Quetelet extensively used the binomial and normal models to study demographic, judicial, and anthropometric data, but he was interested mainly in studying ‘true values’. Later, Galton, in course of studying heredity on the basis of biometric data, recognized the importance of variability and developed empirically bivariate regression, correlation, and the bivariate normal model. Edgeworth, Karl Pearson, and Yule extended Galton’s results and methods to the multivariate case. Empirical studies also led to the formulation of new problems of inference relating to correlation.
Richard Swedberg
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691155227
- eISBN:
- 9781400850358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691155227.003.0001
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
This introductory chapter begins with a description of a crime solved in the summer of 1879 to shed some light on the importance of theory in social science. The victim of the crime, and also the ...
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This introductory chapter begins with a description of a crime solved in the summer of 1879 to shed some light on the importance of theory in social science. The victim of the crime, and also the person who solved it, was philosopher and scientist Charles S. Peirce. In a letter to his friend, he described what had happened as an instance of the “theory why it is so that people so often guess right.” Guessing, in Peirce's view, plays a crucial role in scientific research. It is precisely through guessing that the most important part of the scientific analysis is produced—namely, the explanation. The term that Peirce most often used in his work for the guess of a hypothesis is abduction. Human beings, as he saw it, are endowed by nature with a capacity to come up with explanations. They have a “faculty of guessing,” without which science would not be possible in the first place.Less
This introductory chapter begins with a description of a crime solved in the summer of 1879 to shed some light on the importance of theory in social science. The victim of the crime, and also the person who solved it, was philosopher and scientist Charles S. Peirce. In a letter to his friend, he described what had happened as an instance of the “theory why it is so that people so often guess right.” Guessing, in Peirce's view, plays a crucial role in scientific research. It is precisely through guessing that the most important part of the scientific analysis is produced—namely, the explanation. The term that Peirce most often used in his work for the guess of a hypothesis is abduction. Human beings, as he saw it, are endowed by nature with a capacity to come up with explanations. They have a “faculty of guessing,” without which science would not be possible in the first place.
Richard Swedberg
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691155227
- eISBN:
- 9781400850358
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691155227.003.0006
- Subject:
- Sociology, Social Research and Statistics
This chapter explores various ways of coming up with an explanation. These include Charles S. Peirce's notion of abduction, or his theory of how to come up with an explanation from the practical ...
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This chapter explores various ways of coming up with an explanation. These include Charles S. Peirce's notion of abduction, or his theory of how to come up with an explanation from the practical perspective of the scientist. Another is colligation, a term coined by William Whewell which means linking facts together in a new way when one makes a discovery. In Peirce's work, one can also find the term retroduction, a word which reminds that to explain a phenomenon means to look at what comes before the phenomenon. Hypothesis is another term that Peirce used in this context. It emphasizes that an abduction is just a suggestion for an explanation, and that the explanation has to be tested against facts before it can acquire scientific value. Finally, guessing indicates that the scientist does not know how to proceed when he or she is looking for an explanation, but must somehow do so anyway.Less
This chapter explores various ways of coming up with an explanation. These include Charles S. Peirce's notion of abduction, or his theory of how to come up with an explanation from the practical perspective of the scientist. Another is colligation, a term coined by William Whewell which means linking facts together in a new way when one makes a discovery. In Peirce's work, one can also find the term retroduction, a word which reminds that to explain a phenomenon means to look at what comes before the phenomenon. Hypothesis is another term that Peirce used in this context. It emphasizes that an abduction is just a suggestion for an explanation, and that the explanation has to be tested against facts before it can acquire scientific value. Finally, guessing indicates that the scientist does not know how to proceed when he or she is looking for an explanation, but must somehow do so anyway.
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.
Kory Spencer Sorrell
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823223541
- eISBN:
- 9780823235582
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fso/9780823223541.001.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Feminist Philosophy
Although widely recognized as a founder and key figure in the current re-emergence of pragmatism, Charles Peirce is rarely brought into contemporary dialogue. This book shows that Peirce has much to ...
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Although widely recognized as a founder and key figure in the current re-emergence of pragmatism, Charles Peirce is rarely brought into contemporary dialogue. This book shows that Peirce has much to offer contemporary debate and deepens the value of his view of representation in light of feminist epistemology, philosophy of science, and cultural anthropology. Drawing also on William James and John Dewey, the book identifies ways in which bias, authority, and purpose are ineluctable constituents of shared representation. It nevertheless defends Peirce's realistic account of representation, showing how the independently real world both constrains social representation and informs its content. Most importantly, the book shows how members of a given community not only represent but transform a shared world, and how those practices of representation may, and should, be improved.Less
Although widely recognized as a founder and key figure in the current re-emergence of pragmatism, Charles Peirce is rarely brought into contemporary dialogue. This book shows that Peirce has much to offer contemporary debate and deepens the value of his view of representation in light of feminist epistemology, philosophy of science, and cultural anthropology. Drawing also on William James and John Dewey, the book identifies ways in which bias, authority, and purpose are ineluctable constituents of shared representation. It nevertheless defends Peirce's realistic account of representation, showing how the independently real world both constrains social representation and informs its content. Most importantly, the book shows how members of a given community not only represent but transform a shared world, and how those practices of representation may, and should, be improved.
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.
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.
M. Gail Hamner
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- November 2003
- ISBN:
- 9780195155471
- eISBN:
- 9780199834266
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/0195155475.003.0004
- Subject:
- Religion, Philosophy of Religion
This chapter (and the last) deals with the texts of two German thinkers who were widely read by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James – Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt. They clarify the ...
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This chapter (and the last) deals with the texts of two German thinkers who were widely read by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James – 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 Wundt (with which that of James has some parallels) is the outcome of the professionalization of psychology, a process that challenged the radical individualism and commitment to liberal democracy that was inherent in the American pragmatists’ cultural and political lineages and backgrounds. 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 Wundt is concerned, are the concepts of will and consciousness.Less
This chapter (and the last) deals with the texts of two German thinkers who were widely read by Charles Sanders Peirce and William James – 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 Wundt (with which that of James has some parallels) is the outcome of the professionalization of psychology, a process that challenged the radical individualism and commitment to liberal democracy that was inherent in the American pragmatists’ cultural and political lineages and backgrounds. 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 Wundt is concerned, are the concepts of will and consciousness.
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.
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.
Torjus Midtgarden
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- September 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780199890576
- eISBN:
- 9780199980031
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199890576.003.0009
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Metaphysics/Epistemology, Logic/Philosophy of Mathematics
This chapter considers Charles S. Peirce's architectonic plan for constructing philosophical systems and how it bears on his view of the relation between logic and metaphysics. The chapter asks ...
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This chapter considers Charles S. Peirce's architectonic plan for constructing philosophical systems and how it bears on his view of the relation between logic and metaphysics. The chapter asks whether Peirce can be said to belong to the modeltheoretical tradition, as Jaakko Hintikka has proposed, rather than to the tradition viewing logical language as a universal medium. Several facts seem to contradict a positive answer: firstly, Peirce developed sign typological distinctions assumed to be valid across natural languages and across the distinction between natural and formal languages. Secondly, the mature Peirce assumed a universal domain of objects to which all propositions refer. The author investigates how Peirce's architectonic plan establishes a unilateral dependence of metaphysics on logic. The chapter considers Peirce's semiotical analysis and how it motivates an ontological theory of facts. The chapter shows that the distinction discussed is not well suited to capture Peirce's understanding of the relation between logic and metaphysics.Less
This chapter considers Charles S. Peirce's architectonic plan for constructing philosophical systems and how it bears on his view of the relation between logic and metaphysics. The chapter asks whether Peirce can be said to belong to the modeltheoretical tradition, as Jaakko Hintikka has proposed, rather than to the tradition viewing logical language as a universal medium. Several facts seem to contradict a positive answer: firstly, Peirce developed sign typological distinctions assumed to be valid across natural languages and across the distinction between natural and formal languages. Secondly, the mature Peirce assumed a universal domain of objects to which all propositions refer. The author investigates how Peirce's architectonic plan establishes a unilateral dependence of metaphysics on logic. The chapter considers Peirce's semiotical analysis and how it motivates an ontological theory of facts. The chapter shows that the distinction discussed is not well suited to capture Peirce's understanding of the relation between logic and metaphysics.
