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The Essential Peirce, Volume 2: Selected Philosophical Writings, 1893–1913 QUOTES

The Essential Peirce, Volume 2: Selected Philosophical Writings, 1893–1913 QUOTES

1 " We start, then, with nothing, pure zero. But this is not the nothing of negation. For not means other than, and other is merely a synonym of the ordinal numeral second. As such it implies a first; while the present pure zero is prior to every first. The nothing of negation is the nothing of death, which comes second to, or after, everything. But this pure zero is the nothing of not having been born. There is no individual thing, no compulsion, outward nor inward, no law. It is the germinal nothing, in which the whole universe is involved or foreshadowed. As such, it is absolutely undefined and unlimited possibility -- boundless possibility. There is no compulsion and no law. It is boundless freedom. "

― Charles Sanders Peirce , The Essential Peirce, Volume 2: Selected Philosophical Writings, 1893–1913

2 " Abduction is the process of forming an explanatory hypothesis. It is the only logical operation which introduces any new idea; for induction does nothing but determine a value and deduction merely evolves the necessary consequences of a pure hypothesis. "

― Charles Sanders Peirce , The Essential Peirce, Volume 2: Selected Philosophical Writings, 1893–1913

3 " Are you sure twice two are four? Not at all. A certain percentage of the human race are insane and subject to illusions. It may be you are one of them, and that your idea that twice two is four is a lunatic notion, and your seeming recollection that other people think so, the baseless fabric of a vision. "

― Charles Sanders Peirce , The Essential Peirce, Volume 2: Selected Philosophical Writings, 1893–1913

4 " Signs are of three classes, namely, Icons (or images), Indices, and Symbols. Article 6. An icon is a sign which stands for its object because as a thing perceived it excites an idea naturally allied to the idea that object would excite. "

― Charles Sanders Peirce , The Essential Peirce, Volume 2: Selected Philosophical Writings, 1893–1913