more from this thinker     |     more from this text

Single Idea 6947

[filed under theme 1. Philosophy / E. Nature of Metaphysics / 3. Metaphysical Systems ]

Full Idea

Metaphysical systems have not usually rested upon any observed facts, or not in any great degree. They are chiefly adopted because their fundamental propositions seem 'agreeable to reason', which means that which we find ourselves inclined to believe.

Gist of Idea

Metaphysics does not rest on facts, but on what we are inclined to believe

Source

Charles Sanders Peirce (The Fixation of Belief [1877], p.15)

Book Ref

Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.15

A Reaction

This leads to Peirce's key claim - that we should allow our beliefs to be formed by something outside of ourselves. I don't share Peirce's contempt for metaphysics, which I take to be about the most abstract presuppositions of our ordinary beliefs.

The 36 ideas with the same theme [building a full interconnected overview of metaphysics]:

21462 It is still possible to largely accept Kant as a whole (where others must be dismantled) [Kant, by Gardner]
5600 Human reason considers all knowledge as belonging to a possible system [Kant]
21457 Reason has two separate objects, morality and freedom, and nature, which ultimately unite [Kant]
19587 Philosophy aims to produce a priori an absolute and artistic world system [Novalis]
22069 Plato has no system. Philosophy is the progression of a mind and development of thoughts [Schlegel,F]
5433 For Hegel, things are incomplete, and contain external references in their own nature [Hegel, by Russell]
6947 Metaphysics does not rest on facts, but on what we are inclined to believe [Peirce]
21489 Super-ordinate disciplines give laws or principles; subordinate disciplines give concrete cases [Peirce, by Atkin]
20265 The desire for a complete system requires making the weak parts look equal to the rest [Nietzsche]
24125 Aristotle enjoyed the sham generalities of a system, as the peak of happiness! [Nietzsche]
23183 Different abilities are needed for living in an incomplete and undogmatic system [Nietzsche]
2892 Wanting a system in philosophy is a lack of integrity [Nietzsche]
22647 A complete system is just a classification of the whole world's ingredients [James]
21571 Philosophical systems are interesting, but we now need a more objective scientific philosophy [Russell]
21574 Hegel's confusions over 'is' show how vast systems can be built on simple errors [Russell]
21587 Philosophers sometimes neglect truth and distort facts to attain a nice system [Russell]
23886 Systems are not unique to each philosopher. The platonist tradition is old and continuous [Weil]
19620 Great systems of philosophy are just brilliant tautologies [Cioran]
23072 Systems are the worst despotism, in philosophy and in life [Cioran]
22140 The greatest philosophers are methodical; it is what makes them great [Grice]
1627 Any statement can be held true if we make enough adjustment to the rest of the system [Quine]
23563 Philosophy moves continually between elaborate theories and the obvious facts [Murdoch]
23942 Philosophy is creating an intellectual conceptual structure for life [Solomon]
8558 One system has properties, powers, events, similarity and substance [Shoemaker]
2319 Metaphysics is the clarification of the ontological relationships between different areas of thought [Kim]
21461 I tried to be unsystematic and piecemeal, but failed; my papers presuppose my other views [Lewis]
2797 As coherence expands its interrelations become steadily tighter, culminating only in necessary truth [Dancy,J]
18535 Without abstraction we couldn't think systematically [Heil]
13917 Metaphysics aims to identify categories of being, and show their interdependency [Lowe]
21460 Only Kant and Hegel have united nature, morals, politics, aesthetics and religion [Gardner]
20349 Metaphysics aims at the essence of things, and a system to show how this explains other truths [Richardson]
20351 Metaphysics needs systems, because analysis just obsesses over details [Richardson]
20350 Metaphysics generalises the data, to get at the ontology [Richardson]
15390 Metaphysics attempts to give an account of everything, in terms of categories and principles [Simons]
13751 If you tore the metaphysics out of philosophy, the whole enterprise would collapse [Schaffer,J]
22820 Early Romantics sought a plurality of systems, in a quest for freedom [Hösle]