Peirce

Famous quotes containing the word peirce:

    Three elements go to make up an idea. The first is its intrinsic quality as a feeling. The second is the energy with which it affects other ideas, an energy which is infinite in the here-and-nowness of immediate sensation, finite and relative in the recency of the past. The third element is the tendency of an idea to bring along other ideas with it.
    —Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)

    It is impossible not to envy the man who can dismiss reason, although we know how it must turn out at last.
    —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)