Peirce

Famous quotes containing the word peirce:

    Whenever a man acts purposively, he acts under a belief in some experimental phenomenon. Consequently, the sum of the experimental phenomena that a proposition implies makes up its entire bearing upon human conduct.
    —Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)

    And what, then, is belief? It is the demi-cadence which closes a musical phrase in the symphony of our intellectual life.
    —Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)

    It has often been argued that absolute scepticism is self-contradictory; but this is a mistake: and even if it were not so, it would be no argument against the absolute sceptic, inasmuch as he does not admit that no contradictory propositions are true. Indeed, it would be impossible to move such a man, for his scepticism consists in considering every argument and never deciding upon its validity; he would, therefore, act in this way in reference to the arguments brought against him.
    —Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)