LIVING DOUBT
SYNTHESE LIBRARY STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY, LOGrC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Managing Editor: JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Boston University Editors: DIRK VANDALEN, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands DONALD DA VIDSON, University of Calijomia, Berkeley THEO A.F. KUIPERS, University of Groningen, The Netherlands PATRICK SUPPES, Stanford University, Califomia JAN WOLENSKI, Jagiellonian University, Krak6w, Po land VOLUME243
LIVING DOUBT Essays concerning the epistemology 0/ Charles Sanders Peirce Edited by GUYDEBROCK and MENNO HULSWIT Catholic University 0/ Nijmegen, The Netherlands SPRINGER-SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, B.V.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Living doubt : essays concerning the epistemology of Charles Sanders Peirce / edited by Guy Debrock and Menno Hulswit. p. cm. -- (Synthese library ; v. 243.) Papers presented at the Charles S. Peirce Sesquicentennial International Congress held at Harvard University in 1989. Includes bibliographical references (p. xxx-xxx) and index. 1. Peirce, Charles S. (Charles Sanders), 1839-1914--Congresses. I. Debrock, G., 1934-11. Hulswit, Menno. 111. Charles S. Peirce Sesquicentennial International Congress (1989 : Harvard University) IV. Series. B945.P4L58 1994 121'.092--dc20 94-12528 ISBN 978-90-481-4414-3 ISBN 978-94-015-8252-0 (ebook) DOI 10.1007/978-94-015-8252-0 Printed on acid-free paper All Rights Reserved 1994 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1994 Softcover reprint ofthe hardcover 1st edition 1994 No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner.
There must be areal and living doubt, and without this alt discussion is idle. (Charles Sanders Peirce W 3:248)
TABLE OF OONTENTS Abbreviations xi Guy Debrock: Introduction 1 PART I: KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH AND THE PRAGMATIC PRINCIPLE 11 Larry Hickman: The Products 0/ Pragmatism 13 Thomas M. Olshewsky: Realism and Anti/oundationalism 25 Humphrey Palmer: Foundations, Circularity, and Transcendental Arguments 33 Qiwei Ohen: Some Aspects 0/ Peirce's Theory 0/ Knowledge 43 Bruce Aune: Determinate Meaning and Analytic Truth 55 Yunqiu Wu: Peirce's Arguments /or his Pragmati6tic Maxim 67 Lee F. Werth: Evolutionary Epistemology and Pragmatism 79 Francesca Rivetti-Barbo: The Antinomy of the Liar and the Concept 0/ 'True Proposition' in Peirce's Semeiotic 89 Rossella Fabbrichesi Leo: The Relevance 0/ the Concept 0/ Relation in Peirce 95 Kuno Lorenz: Pragmatics and Semiotic: The Peircean Version 0/ Ontology and Epistemology 103 Angele Kremer-Marietti: Peirce's Epistemology as a Generalized Theory 0/ Language 109 vii
PART 11: PEIRCE AND THE EPISTEMOLOGICAL TRADITION 123 Ryszard W6jcicki: Peircean vs. Aristotelian Conception of Truth 125 Gordon E. Whitney: Reason, Will and Belief: Insights from Duns Scotus and C.S. Peirce 137 Hanna Buczynska-Garewicz: Peirce and Descartes 151 Thomas G. Winner: Peirce and Bolzano 157 Arnold E. Johanson: Peirce and Wittgenstein's On Certainty 171 Jan Wolenski: Some Polish Contributions to Fallibilism 187 Lan Zheng: Peirce, Lakatos and Truth 197 E.M. Barth: Logical Intention and Comparative Principles of Empirical Logic 209 R. W. Sleeper: Peirce 's Puzzle and Putnam 's Progress: Why should I be reasonable? 225 Kunitake Ito: Peirce and Davidson: Man is his Language 237 PART II1: KNOWLEDGE, LANGUAGE AND SEMEIOTIC 247 Tianji Jiang: Peirce's Semeiotic Naturalism 249 Nils B. Thelin: Perception, Conception and Linguistic Reproduction of Events and Time: the Category of Verbal Aspect in the Light of C.S. Peirce's Theory of Signs 257 Joime Rethore: A Survey of the Use and Usefulness of Peirce in Linguistics, in France in particular 275 Jose F. Vericat: Color as Abstraction 289 Index 303 Notes on the Authors 319 viii
PREFACE This volume contains a number of papers regarding the Epistemology of C.S. Peirce (1839-1914), that were presented during the Charles S. Peirce Sesquicentennial International Congress held at Harvard University in the Fall of 1989. Although it is often said that Peirce is one of the most important North American philosophers, the real extent of the philosophical importance of his work begins to emerge only now. Whereas it was for a long time philosophically fashionable to regard pragmatism as a typically naive and simplistic American approach to the serious problems of philosophy, there can be little doubt that recent epistemological literat ure points to areversal of that trend. Indeed, pragmatism, and more specifically, Peirce's own brand of pragmaticism, a term which he invented in order to distance hirns elf from other forms of pragmatism, may weil provide the key to an epistemological theory which avoids the pitfalls of both foundationalism and relativism. The heart of Peirce's doctrine is his Logic, and any interpretation of his work that does not taken this fact into account is bound to offer a caricature of his thought. That 'Logic' is linked to a conception of knowledge and of science, which is increasingly recognized as maybe the only possible one. All we can do is hope that our inquiry, radically fallible though it may be, will ultimately converge to some position we may all agree upon. Peirce never tired of saying that metaphysics is but the ape of logic. This view might be paraphrased by saying that, in a very real way, the prevailing anti-metaphysical mood of much of contemporary philosophy - a mood which Peirce no doubt would have diagnosed as yet another expression of an implicit metaphysic - does little more than ape the 'Logic' which he pioneered. The papers of the present volume represent a rich and cosmopolitan variety of approach to Peirce's Epistemology. This mayaiso partly explain the magnitude of the editorial work that is involved in the publication of such volume. It could not have been done without the support and the help of a number of people who deserve our gratitude. The book would never have been conceived without the encouragement of Prof. K. Ketner of the Lubbock Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism. That it came to be is due to the initial efforts of Prof. C. Schuyt of the University of Amsterdam. We could not have done without the efficient assistance of Mrs. Harrie Schipdam who took care of the difficult and complex task of compiling and checking the index. We are also emdebted for the friendly help extended to IX
us by the Department of Graphics and by the Computer and Communication Department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Nijmegen. We also wish to extend a word of gratitude to Mrs. Annie Kuypers of Kluwer Publications, who kindly facilitated the process of publication. Finally we wish to thank the members of the Department of Philosophy in the Faculty of Science of the University of Nijmegen for their moral support. But, in a very real way this Volume is the product of the painstaking efforts, the diligence and the infinite patience of Mrs. Trudy Hendriks who, within a short but very effective period of time not only coordinated every aspect of the project but saw to it that it was brought to a happyend. There simply is no adequate way that might express our gratitude for her dedication, and for the sheer magnitude of the work she has accomplished. GUY DEBROCK MENNO HULSWIT x
ABBREVIATIONS The following commonly accepted abbreviations are used to refer to the standard editions of Peirce's works. CP Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, edited by C. Hartshorne, P. Weiss (volumes 1-6), and A. Burks (volumes 7-8) (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1931-1958), followed by volume and paragraph numbers. HP MS N NEM PW W Historical Perspectives on Peirce 's Logic of Science: A History of Science, edited by Carolyn EiseIe, 2 volumes (Berlin: Mouton-De Gruyter, 1985), followed by volume and page numbers. Peirce manuscripts in Houghton Library at Harvard University, followed by a number identified in Richard R. Robin, annotated Catalogue of the Papers of Charles S. Peirce (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1967), or in Richard R. Robin, "The Peirce Papers: A Supplementary Catalogue", Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 7(1971):37-57. Charles Sanders Peirce: Contributions to the Nation, edited by Kenneth Laine Ketner and James Edward Cook, 4 volumes (Lubbock: Texas Tech. University Press, 1975-1987), followed by volume and page numbers. The New Elements of Mathematics by Charles S. Peirce, edited by Carolyn EiseIe, 4 volumes in 5 books (The Hage: Mouton, 1976), followed by volume and page numbers. Semiotic and Signijics: The Correspondence between Charles S. Peirce and Victoria Lady Welby, edited by Charles S. Hardwiek (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1977), followed by page numbers. Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, edited by Max H. Fisch et al. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982- ), followed by volume and page numbers. xi