Full Idea
To satisfy our doubts it is necessary that a method should be found by which our beliefs may be determined by nothing human, but by some external permanency - by something upon which our thinking has no effect.
Gist of Idea
Doubts should be satisfied by some external permanency upon which thinking has no effect
Source
Charles Sanders Peirce (The Fixation of Belief [1877], p.18)
Book Reference
Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.18
A Reaction
This may be the single most important idea in pragmatism and in the philosophy of science. See Fodor on experiments (Idea 2455). Put the question to nature. The essential aim is to be passive in our beliefs - just let reality form them.
Related Idea
Idea 2455 Interrogation and experiment submit us to having beliefs caused [Fodor]