MS 628-640 (1909) - Meaning

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Chapter I and Preface

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Meaning 1

STUDIES IN THE MEANINGS OF OUR THOUGHTS

WHAT IS THE AIM OF THINKING?

Considered in Two Chapters.

[This Essay, which contains the earliest formulation of the doctric of Pragmatism, having some little historical curiosity, is printed, except for the omission of some dilutions originally intended for [?? ???????? to ??????? ?????? ??] is just as it first appeared, in the Popular Science Monthly, the first chapter in the November 1877, the second in January 1878. Such statements in it as are more or less incorrect are reconsidered in notes appended to this reprint.]

Chapter I. The Fixation of Belief

The aim of reasoning is to find out, from the consideration of matters and things which already within our knowledge, something else that we had not known. Consequently, reasoning is good if it be really calculated to yield a true conclusion as true as its premisses; while if this is not the case, the reasoning is bad. The question of its validity is thus purely a question of

Last edit over 5 years ago by noamsol
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Meaning 2

fact and not a question of thinking. Let A be the fact state of things asserted in the premisses and C the state of things fact concluded. Then the question of the validity of the inference is simply wholly included in the question whether these states of things are really so related that if A be a fact in [???????], C is so likewise , a fact or not. It is not, in the least, the question whether the acceptance of the premisses inclines impels us to accept the conclusion, too, or not. True, out brains are so constructed or our minds function in such a way that, like the logical machines that have been men have invented and constructed they usually do turn out the right conclusion. But the true conclusion would remains false in those [?????] cases in which al men for two thousand years have accepted it.

Last edit over 5 years ago by noamsol
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Meaning 2 The aim of reasoning is to find out, from the consideration of matters and things already known, something else that we had not before known.

Consequently, reasoning is good if it be calculated to give a true conclusion from true premises; but otherwise it is bad. Thus, the question is purely one of fact and not of thinking or of any disposition to think in one way rather than another. Let A stand for the antecedently as summed state of things asserted in the collective premiss, and C for the consequent state of things assented in the conclusion to be consequent upon A. Then, the whole question is whether or not, to the extent the reasoning supposes, [whether it {carat: "professes to"} be necessary reasoning, or probably, or advantageous in the long run,] it be true that A is realized in fact, C will be realized in fact, too. If so, the inference is valid; if not, it is invalid fallacious. It is not, in the least, the goal

Last edit over 6 years ago by Jsprake
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Meaning 3 question, whether the reasoning persuades or convinces the mind; whether when the premises are once accepted, we feel inclined, however irresistibly, to accept the conclusion; as some German logicians of high renown maintain that it is. [If the reader asks me how I can convince him of the correctness of {carat: "this"} any position, I reply that I have no need of convincing him, since his own firm conviction already coincides with mine, whether he be he aware of it, or not. You doubtless remember an experience common to every high-school boy. I cannot be so sure about the girls, never having been a high-school girl myself. Some One of your com rades brought you a piece of algebraic work, and asked you if it was correct. You examined it and said it was. Your school-fellow said it would be such a terrible thing for him if it were wrong, that he begged you to [P......] it through once more and very carefully you did so, and pronounced it perfectly satisfactory. He asked you to write on the paper a solemn oath that {carat: "the reasoning"} was free from the least flow, you did so. Then

Last edit over 6 years ago by Jsprake
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Meaning 4 fact and not a question of thinking. Set A be the {carat: "factualization?"}premises of the conclusion then Then he showed you that one thing clearly implies in its conclusion was that 2=3. Therupon, you remember, you blushed and admitted that through the reasoning entirely satisfied your mind, and you could see no {carat: "find no"} [f...] flaw in it, yet it could not be sound; and that I know is just what you would confess in analogous eased to-day. I know it, because I know you to be so perfectly candid and free from any guile or [mond.r.us] false pretension. Now if you reply that an argument's leading from true premises to a false conclu sion, though it is sure sign of its being unsatisfactory, is not what the fallacious character consists in, I shall infer that you are either a Lawyer or a catholic priest or some other character occupy some other position outside the pale of {carat: modern} sciences, which has accustomed habituated you to satisfying the minds of others and, when, as far as possible, your own too with distinctions like these and I shall ask you be obliged to ask you whether you conceive that this

Last edit over 6 years ago by Jsprake
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