Charles Sanders Peirce: Pragmatism and Education

109 Pages·2016·1.52 MB·English

by  David Plowright (auth.)

SPRINGER BRIEFS IN EDUCATION
KEY THINKERS IN EDUCATION
David Plowright
Charles Sanders
Peirce
Pragmatism and
Education
123
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David Plowright
Charles Sanders Peirce
Pragmatism and Education
123
DavidPlowright
Centrefor Higher andAdultEducation
Stellenbosch University
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SouthAfrica
ISSN 2211-1921 ISSN 2211-193X (electronic)
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To Allison and Alexandra.
And thank you to three natural
pragmatists, Minkie, Tommy and Lizzie,
for your constant companionship.
Acknowledgements
I have drawn extensively on the work of C.S. Peirce from the Collected Papers of
Charles Sanders Peirce, published by Harvard University Press.
Quotations from volumes I and II are reprinted by permission of the publisher
from COLLECTED PAPERS OF CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE: VOLUMES
I–II,editedbyCharlesHartshorneandPaulWeiss,Cambridge,Mass.:TheBelknap
Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1931, 1932, 1959, 1960 by the
President and Fellows of Harvard College.
QuotationsfromvolumesIIIandIVarereprintedbypermissionofthepublisher
from COLLECTED PAPERS OF CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE: VOLUMES
III–IV, edited by Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, Cambridge, Mass.: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1933, 1961 by the
President and Fellows of Harvard College.
QuotationsfromvolumesVandVIarereprintedbypermissionofthepublisher
from COLLECTED PAPERS OF CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE: VOLUMES
V–VI, edited by Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, Cambridge, Mass.: The
Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1935, 1963 by the
President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Quotations from volumes VII and VIII are reprinted by permission of the
publisher from COLLECTED PAPERS OF CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE:
VOLUMES VII–VIII, edited by Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, Cambridge,
Mass.:TheBelknapPressofHarvardUniversityPress,Copyright©1958,1986by
the President and Fellows of Harvard College.
vii
Contents
1 The Story of Charles Sanders Peirce. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Peirce’s Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Career . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Ideas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Personality and Behaviour. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Lifestyle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2 Introducing Pragmatism. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Pragmatic Maxim . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Belief and Habit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Belief and Disposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Belief and Doubt. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
First Difference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Second Difference. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Third Difference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Settling a Belief. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Next. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3 Inquiry and Inferential Thinking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Methods of Fixing Belief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Logical Inference and Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Deduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Abduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Elements of an Argument. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Abduction: Where are These White Beans from?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Deduction: Why are the Beans on the Table White?. . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Induction: What Colour are All the Beans in the Bag?. . . . . . . . . . 34
ix
x Contents
Final Remarks. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4 Inferential Logic and Inquiry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Inquiry. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Abduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Deduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Classification. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Probations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Gradual Induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Sentential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5 Semiotics: The Theory of Signs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
The Sign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
The Three Trichotomies of Signs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
First Trichotomy of Signs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Qualisign . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Sinsign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Legisign. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Danger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Second Trichotomy of Signs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Icon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Convention. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
No Pure Icon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
6 Semiotics Continued. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Index Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Symbol. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Peirce’s Third Trichotomy of Signs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Immediate Interpretant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Dynamical Interpretant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Final Interpretant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Rheme, Dicisgn and Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Finally . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
7 The Categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
The Categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Firstness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Contents xi
Secondness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Thirdness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
8 Final Words. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95