Single Idea 14782

[catalogued under 1. Philosophy / G. Scientific Philosophy / 3. Scientism]

Full Idea

Philosophy, although it uses no microscopes or other apparatus of special observation, is really an experimental science, resting on that experience which is common to us all.

Gist of Idea

Philosophy is an experimental science, resting on common experience

Source

Charles Sanders Peirce (The Nature of Mathematics [1898], I)

Book Reference

Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.139


A Reaction

The 'experimental' either implies that thought-experiments are central to the subject, or that philosophers are discussing the findings of scientists, but at a high level of theory and abstraction. Peirce probably means the latter. I can't disagree.