Re: Dispersion, Uncertainty, Doubt, Entropy (DUDE❢)

Stephen,

Maybe it was this passage from "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" that you had in mind?

| The principles set forth in the first part of this essay lead, at once,
| to a method of reaching a clearness of thought of higher grade than the
| "distinctness" of the logicians.  It was there noticed that the action of
| thought is excited by the irritation of doubt, and ceases when belief is
| attained;  so that the production of belief is the sole function of thought.
| All these words, however, are too strong for my purpose.  It is as if I had
| described the phenomena as they appear under a mental microscope.
|
| http://www.peirce.org/writings/p119.html

Read in context, I don't think Peirce is making a universal statement about all thought but only 
about the clarity-seeking brand of thinking process that is his subject in this essay.  At the very 
least, if the production of belief really is the sole function of every thought then we'd have to 
accept the rather perverse state of affairs that a thought which achieves its function is the 
exception rather than the rule.

Jon

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