Re: C.S. Peirce • Objective Logic

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Note 2

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Objective Logic (cont.)

The first question, then, which I have to ask is:  Supposing such a thing
to be true, what is the kind of proof which I ought to demand to satisfy me of
its truth?  Am I simply to go through the actual process of development of symbols
with my own thoughts, which are symbols, and am I to find in the sense of necessity
and evidence of the following of one thought upon another an adequate assurance that
the course followed is the necessary line of thought's development?  That is the way
the question has usually been put, hitherto, both by Hegelians and by Anti-Hegelians.

But even if I were to find that the sequence of conceptions in Hegel's logic carried
my mind irresistibly along its current, that would not suffice to convince me of its
universal validity.  Nor, on the other hand, does the mere fact that I do not find a
single step of Hegel's logic, or any substitute for it that I have met with, either
convincing or persuasive, give me any assurance whatever that there is no such life-
history.  It seems to me natural to suppose that it would be far easier satisfactorily
to answer the question of whether there is such a thing than to find out what particular
form that life-history would take if it were a reality;  and not only natural to suppose so,
but made as certain by solid reasons as any such anticipation in regard to proofs could well be.

— Charles S. Peirce, “Minute Logic” (1902), CP 2.112

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