Combining Texts

All the ideas for 'Science and Method', 'The Evolution of Physics' and 'Essentials of Pragmatism'

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5 ideas

6. Mathematics / A. Nature of Mathematics / 2. Geometry

10245	One geometry cannot be more true than another [Poincaré]
	Full Idea: One geometry cannot be more true than another; it can only be more convenient.
	From: Henri Poincaré (Science and Method [1908], p.65), quoted by Stewart Shapiro - Philosophy of Mathematics
	A reaction: This is the culminating view after new geometries were developed by tinkering with Euclid's parallels postulate.

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 / B. Modern Physics / 2. Electrodynamics / b. Fields

18202	The concept of a field gradually replaced the substances in explaining relations between charges [Einstein/Infeld]
	Full Idea: In the beginning the field concept was no more than a means of facilitating the understanding of phenomena. ...In the new field language it is the field and not the charges themselves which is essential. The substance was overshadowed by the field.
	From: Einstein,A/Infeld,L (The Evolution of Physics [1938], p.151), quoted by Penelope Maddy - Naturalism in Mathematics II.4
	A reaction: This is very important for philosophical metaphysicians, especially those like me who want to explain the universe by the nature of the stuff that composes it. The 'stuff' had better not be simplistic individual 'substances'.