The Commens Dictionary

Quote from ‘Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism: Lecture VII, a deleted passage’

Quote: 

If you carefully consider the question of pragmatism you will see that it is nothing else than the question of the logic of abduction. That is, pragmatism proposes a certain maxim which, if sound, must render needless any further rule as to the admissibility of hypotheses to rank as hypotheses, that is to say, as explanations of phenomena held as hopeful suggestions; and, furthermore, this is all that the maxim of pragmatism really pretends to do, at least so far as it is confined to logic, and is not understood as a proposition in psychology. For the maxim of pragmatism is that a conception can have no logical effect or import differing from that of a second conception except so far as, taken in connection with other conceptions and intentions, it might conceivably modify our practical conduct differently from that second conception.

Date: 
1903
References: 
CP 5.196
Citation: 
‘Maxim of Pragmatism’ (pub. 07.04.13-12:21). Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce's Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. Retrieved from http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-harvard-lectures-pragmatism-lecture-vii-deleted-passage-1.
Posted: 
Apr 07, 2013, 12:21 by Sami Paavola
Last revised: 
Jan 07, 2014, 00:58 by Commens Admin