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Single Idea 14783

[filed under theme 5. Theory of Logic / C. Ontology of Logic / 3. If-Thenism ]

Full Idea

Mathematics is purely hypothetical: it produces nothing but conditional propositions. Logic, on the contrary, is categorical in its assertions. True, it is a normative science, and not a mere discovery of what really is. It discovers ends from means.

Gist of Idea

Logic, unlike mathematics, is not hypothetical; it asserts categorical ends from hypothetical means

Source

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

Book Ref

Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.142


The 8 ideas from 'The Nature of Mathematics'

Experience is indeed our only source of knowledge, provided we include inner experience [Peirce]
Philosophy is an experimental science, resting on common experience [Peirce]
Logic, unlike mathematics, is not hypothetical; it asserts categorical ends from hypothetical means [Peirce]
Ethics is the science of aims [Peirce]
Some logical possibility concerns single propositions, but there is also compatibility between propositions [Peirce]
The world is one of experience, but experiences are always located among our ideas [Peirce]
Self-contradiction doesn't reveal impossibility; it is inductive impossibility which reveals self-contradiction [Peirce]
Mathematics is close to logic, but is even more abstract [Peirce]