Combining Philosophers

Ideas for Hermarchus, Charles Sanders Peirce and Baruch de Spinoza

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7 ideas

3. Truth / E. Pragmatic Truth / 1. Pragmatic Truth
Truth is the opinion fated to be ultimately agreed by all investigators [Peirce]
     Full Idea: The opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate, is what we mean by the truth, and the object represented in this opinion is the real.
     From: Charles Sanders Peirce (How to Make our Ideas Clear [1878], p.38)
     A reaction: At least this affirms that truth is an ideal about which we dream, and is not confined merely to what we can actually know. But it rules out anything beyond the reach of all investigation, which seems a misconception of truth. What could angels know?
Pragmatic 'truth' is a term to cover the many varied aims of enquiry [Peirce, by Misak]
     Full Idea: In Peirce's naturalist view of truth, it is a catch-all for the particular local aims of enquiry - empirical adequacy, predictive power, coherence, simplicity, elegance, explanatory power, a reliable guide to action, fruitfulness, great understanding.
     From: report of Charles Sanders Peirce (works [1892]) by Cheryl Misak - Pragmatism and Deflationism 1
     A reaction: The aims I cited in my thesis on explanation. One given, for me, is that truth is an ideal, which may or may not be attainable, to varying degrees. It is just what thinking aims at. I suspect, though, that these listed items have one thing in common.
Peirce did not think a belief was true if it was useful [Peirce, by Misak]
     Full Idea: Peirce was not in the slightest bit tempted by the thought that a belief is true if it is useful.
     From: report of Charles Sanders Peirce (works [1892]) by Cheryl Misak - Pragmatism and Deflationism 2
     A reaction: All students of the pragmatic theory of truth should start with this idea, because it rejects the caricature view of pragmatic truth, a view which is easily rebutted. James seems to have been guilty of this sin.
If truth is the end of enquiry, what if it never ends, or ends prematurely? [Atkin on Peirce]
     Full Idea: Two related worries about Peirce's account of truth are (from Royce) what are we to make of truth if enquiry never reaches an end, and (from Russell) what are we to make of truth if enquiry ends prematurely?
     From: comment on Charles Sanders Peirce (works [1892]) by Albert Atkin - Peirce 3 'issues'
     A reaction: The defence of Peirce must be that the theory is not holistic - referring to the whole Truth about absolutely everything. The discovery of the periodic table seems to me to support Peirce. In many areas basic enquiry has reached an end.
Independent truth (if there is any) is the ultimate result of sufficient enquiry [Peirce]
     Full Idea: I hold that truth's independence of individual opinions is due (so far as there is any 'truth') to its being the predestined result to which sufficient enquiry would ultimately lead.
     From: Charles Sanders Peirce (Pragmatism in Retrospect [1906], p.288)
'Holding for true' is either practical commitment, or provisional theory [Peirce]
     Full Idea: Whether or not 'truth' has two meanings, I think 'holding for true' has two kinds. One is practical holding for true which alone is entitled to the name of Belief; the other is the acceptance of a proposition, which in pure science is always provisional.
     From: Charles Sanders Peirce (Reasoning and the Logic of Things [1898], IV)
     A reaction: The problem here seems to be that we can act on a proposition without wholly believing it, like walking across thin ice.
Peirce's theory offers anti-realist verificationism, but surely how things are is independent of us? [Horsten on Peirce]
     Full Idea: Peirce's anti-realist theory of a truth is a verificationist theory. Truth is judged to be an epistemic notion. But the way things are is independent of the evidence we may be able to obtain for or against a judgement.
     From: comment on Charles Sanders Peirce (Pragmatism in Retrospect [1906]) by Leon Horsten - The Tarskian Turn 02.1
     A reaction: This criticism doesn't quite capture the point that Peirce's theory is that truth is an ideal, not the set of opinions that miserable little humans eventually settle for when they get bored. Truth is an aspect of rationality, perhaps.