Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Fragments and accounts of Gorgias', 'Essentials of Pragmatism' and 'The Metaphysics of Space-Time Substantivalism'

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4 ideas

12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 3. Pragmatism

14794	Instead of seeking Truth, we should seek belief that is beyond doubt [Peirce]
	Full Idea: Your problems would be greatly simplified, if, instead of saying that you want to know the Truth, you were simply to say that you want to attain a state of belief unassailable beyond doubt.
	From: Charles Sanders Peirce (Essentials of Pragmatism [1905], I)
	A reaction: This is not the same as saying that belief beyond doubt IS truth. He is merely offering a strategy for scientists to side-step the sort of scepticism raised by Descartes and radical empiricists.

18. Thought / D. Concepts / 3. Ontology of Concepts / b. Concepts as abilities

14792	A 'conception', the rational implication of a word, lies in its bearing upon the conduct of life [Peirce]
	Full Idea: The present writer framed the theory that a 'conception', that is, the rational purport of a word or other expression, lies exclusively in its conceivable bearing upon the conduct of life.
	From: Charles Sanders Peirce (Essentials of Pragmatism [1905], I)

18. Thought / D. Concepts / 4. Structure of Concepts / b. Analysis of concepts

14793	The definition of a concept is just its experimental implications [Peirce]
	Full Idea: If one can define accurately all the conceivable experimental phenomena which the affirmation or denial of a concept could imply, one will have therein a complete definition of the concept, and there is absolutely nothing more in it.
	From: Charles Sanders Peirce (Essentials of Pragmatism [1905], I)
	A reaction: Strictly, I would have thought you could only affirm or deny a complete proposition, rather than a concept. What should I do with the concept of a 'unicorn'? Note that all theories, such as empiricism or pragmatism, begin with an account of our concepts.

27. Natural Reality / C. Space / 4. Substantival Space

19035	General Relativity allows substantivalism about space-time - that it has independent properties [Hoefer]
	Full Idea: General Relativity describes space-time in a way that allows it to exist with determinate properties not reducible to the properties and relations of its material contents. Hence nearly all physicists and philosophers writing on GR are substantivalists.
	From: Carl Hoefer (The Metaphysics of Space-Time Substantivalism [1996], p.5), quoted by Barbara Vetter - Potentiality 7.3
	A reaction: I'm encouraged by this, as I instinctly favour substantivalism. Imagine removing all the objects from space-time, one by one. What happens as you approach the end of the task? Once they are removed, can they be replaced?