C.S. Peirce • Syllabus • Selec tion 1

Post   : C.S. Peirce =95 Syllabus =95 Selection 1
http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2014/08/24/c-s-peirce-%e2%80%a2-syllabus-%e2%=
80%a2-selection-1/
Posted : August 24, 2014 at 11:00 pm
Author : Jon Awbrey

Peircers,

Returning to a text of Peirce that often comes to mind whenever I think on
the relationship between logic and mathematics, I thought it might be good
to look again and perhaps more studiously this time into its context ...

Selection from C.S. Peirce, =93A Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic=94 (19=
03)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

An Outline Classification of the Sciences

180.   This classification, which aims to base itself on the principal affi=
nities of the objects
classified, is concerned not with all possible sciences, nor with so many b=
ranches of knowledge, but
with sciences in their present condition, as so many businesses of groups o=
f living men.  It borrows
its idea from Comte's classification;  namely, the idea that one science de=
pends upon another for
fundamental principles, but does not furnish such principles to that other.=
  It turns out that in
most cases the divisions are trichotomic;  the First of the three members r=
elating to universal
elements or laws, the Second arranging classes of forms and seeking to brin=
g them under universal
laws, the Third going into the utmost detail, describing individual phenome=
na and endeavoring to
explain them.  But not all the divisions are of this character.

The classification has been carried into great detail;  but only its broade=
r divisions are here given.

181.   All science is either,
=95 A.  Science of Discovery;
=95 B.  Science of Review;  or
=95 C.  Practical Science.

182.   By =93science of review=94 is meant the business of those who occupy=
 themselves with arranging
the results of discovery, beginning with digests, and going on to endeavor =
to form a philosophy of
science.  Such is the nature of Humboldt's Cosmos, of Comte's Philosophie p=
ositive, and of Spencer's
Synthetic Philosophy.  The classification of the sciences belongs to this d=
epartment.

183.   Science of Discovery is either,
=95 I.  Mathematics;
=95 II.  Philosophy;  or
=95 III.  Idioscopy.

184.   Mathematics studies what is and what is not logically possible, with=
out making itself
responsible for its actual existence.  Philosophy is positive science, in t=
he sense of discovering
what really is true;  but it limits itself to so much of truth as can be in=
ferred from common
experience.  Idioscopy embraces all of the special sciences, which are prin=
cipally occupied with the
accumulation of new facts.

185.   Mathematics may be divided into
=95 a.  the Mathematics of Logic;
=95 b.  the Mathematics of Discrete Series;
=95 c.  the Mathematics of Continua and Pseudo-continua.

I shall not carry this division further.  Branch b has recourse to branch a,
and branch c to branch b.

186.   Philosophy is divided into
=95 a.  Phenomenology;
=95 b.  Normative Science;
=95 c.  Metaphysics.

Phenomenology ascertains and studies the kinds of elements universally pres=
ent in the phenomenon;
meaning by the phenomenon, whatever is present at any time to the mind in a=
ny way.

Normative science distinguishes what ought to be from what ought not to be,=
 and makes many other
divisions and arrangements subservient to its primary dualistic distinction.

Metaphysics seeks to give an account of the universe of mind and matter.

Normative science rests largely on phenomenology and on mathematics;  metap=
hysics on phenomenology
and on normative science.

Peirce, CP 1.180=96186, EP 2.258=96259,
http://web.archive.org/web/20111105121054/http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/p=
eirce/cl_o_sci_03.htm

Notes
-----

Collected Papers 1
=95 Pp. 5=969 of A Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic, 1903, Alfred Mudge =
& Son, Boston, bearing the
following preface:  =93This syllabus has for its object to supplement a cou=
rse of eight lectures to be
delivered at the Lowell Institute, by some statements for which there will =
not be time in the
lectures, and by some others not easily carried away from one hearing.  It =
is to be a help to those
who wish seriously to study the subject, and to show others what the style =
of thought is that is
required in such study.  Like the lectures themselves, this syllabus is int=
ended chiefly to convey
results that have never appeared in print;  and much is omitted because it =
can be found elsewhere.=94

Essential Peirce 2
=95 (a) http://www.iupui.edu/~peirce/ep/ep2/headers/ep2headx.htm#18
=95 (b) http://www.iupui.edu/~peirce/ep/ep2/headers/notes/note18.htm

References
----------

=95 Peirce, C.S., Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce,
vols. 1=966, Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss (eds.), vols. 7=968,
Arthur W. Burks (ed.), Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA,
1931=961935, 1958. Volume 1 : Principles of Philosophy, 1931.

=95 Peirce Edition Project (eds., 1998), The Essential Peirce,
Selected Philosophical Writings, Volume 2 (1893=961913),
Indiana University Press, Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN.

-- =


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