> Four seemingly - and may well be - unrelated points of information before
> my comment. The professor who taught American Philosophy here at A&M said
> that Peirce had two hopes in life, that he would get his doctorate and
> that people would say his name correctly.
These "points of information" were intended as tidbits of info not as
definitive emphasis of what was important. I realize now that my
effort to use few words gives the impression that "Peirce's hope" was
offered in any way other than just something that may have been
important to him and not easily noted without being told about it.
> Perhaps this is stupid of me to say it, but I was thinking of the
> passage in the Bible where David says, "the fool has said in his heart,
> there is no God." I got to the point where I thought of the interpretation
> that a person who was behaving foolishly may have thus impressed upon
> someone else's heart that there is no God. Certainly, foolish things
> happen, and someone may say that they're doing it for God. Peirce
> undoubtedly found himself in conflict from time to time in the late 1800's
> in New England.
My specific intent here was the idea that someone speaking to Peirce
improperly or unwisely could have prompted him to think against both
the beliefs and the general concerns that may have been more common
in his day. In his writing, there seem to be some signs of him
responding to religious pressure. That was not the main point of my
note - that was that thought may have other causes that states of
doubt - however, I probably still need some training in scenario
painting! More than once, philosophers have said that Peirce was one
of the most profound, versatile, and influential of the American
philosophers.
Have a nice day
John Paul Fullerton
jpf6745@acs.tamu.edu
--"John Paul Fullerton" <jpf6745@acs.tamu.edu>
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>