Single Idea 14794

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 3. Pragmatism]

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.

Gist of Idea

Instead of seeking Truth, we should seek belief that is beyond doubt

Source

Charles Sanders Peirce (Essentials of Pragmatism [1905], I)

Book Reference

Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.257


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.