IV
Not only the pragmatism and the radical empiricism of James, but the idealism of Royce and the more recent movement of neo-realism are largely indebted to Peirce.
It may seem strange that the same thinker should be claimed as foster-father of both recent idealism and realism, and some may take it as another sign of his lack of consistency. But this seeming strangeness is really due to the looseness with which the antithesis between realism and idealism has generally been put. If by idealism we denote the nominalistic doctrine of Berkeley, then Peirce is clearly not an idealist; and his work in logic as a study of types of order (in which Royce followed him) is fundamental for a logical realism. But if idealism means the old Platonic doctrine that “ideas,” genera, or forms are not merely mental but the real conditions of existence, we need not wonder that Peirce was both idealist and realist.
Royce’s indebtedness to Peirce is principally in the use of modern mathematical material, such as the recent development of the concepts of infinity and continuity, to throw light on fundamental questions of philosophy, such as relation of the individual to God or the Universe. At the end of the nineteenth century mathematics had almost disappeared from the repertory of philosophy (cf. Külpe’s Introduction to Philosophy), and Peirce’s essay on the Law of Mind opened a new way which Royce followed in his World and the Individual, to the great surprise of his idealistic brethren. In his Problem of Christianity Royce has also indicated his indebtedness to Peirce for his doctrine of social consciousness, the mind of the community, and the process of interpretation. It may be that a great deal of the similarity between the thoughts of these two men is due to common sources, such as the works of Kant and Schelling; but it is well to note that not only in his later writings but also in his lectures and seminars Royce continually referred to Peirce’s views.
The ground for the neo-realist movement in American philosophy was largely prepared by the mathematical work of Russell and by the utilization of mathematics to which Royce was led by Peirce. The logic of Mr. Russell is based, as he himself has pointed out, on a combination of the work of Peirce and Peano. In this combination the notation of Peano has proved of greater technical fluency, but all of Peano’s results can also be obtained by Peirce’s method as developed by Schroeder and Mrs. Ladd-Franklin. But philosophically Peirce’s influence is far greater in insisting that logic is not a branch of psychology, that it is not concerned with merely mental processes, but with objective relations. To the view that the laws of logic represent “the necessities of thought,” that propositions are true because “we can not help thinking so,” he answers: “Exact logic will say that C’s following logically from A is a state of things which no impotence of thought alone can bring about.”[[21]] “The question of validity is purely one of fact and not of thinking.... It is not in the least the question whether, when the premises are accepted by the mind, we feel an impulse to accept the conclusion also. The true conclusion would remain true if we had no impulse to accept it, and the false one would remain false though we could not resist the tendency to believe in it.”[[22]]
Since the days of Locke modern philosophy has been almost entirely dominated by the assumption that one must study the process of knowing before one can find out the nature of things known; in other words, that psychology is the central philosophic science. The result of this has been an almost complete identification of philosophy with mental science. Nor did the influence of biologic studies of the middle of the nineteenth century shake the belief in that banal dictum of philosophic mediocrity: “The proper study of mankind is man.” The recent renaissance of logical studies, and the remarkable progress of physics in our own day bid fair to remind us that while the Lockian way has brought some gains to philosophy, the more ancient way of philosophy is by no means exhausted of promise. Man cannot lose his interest in the great cosmic play. Those who have faith in the ancient and fruitful approach to philosophy through the doors of mathematics and physics will find the writings of Charles S. Peirce full of suggestions. That such an approach can also throw light on the vexed problem of knowledge needs no assurance to those acquainted with Plato and Aristotle. But I may conclude by referring to Peirce’s doctrine of ideal as opposed to sensible experiment,[[23]] and to his treatment of the question how it is that in spite of an infinity of possible hypotheses, mankind has managed to make so many successful inductions.[[24]] And for the bearing of mathematical studies on the wisdom of life, the following is certainly worth serious reflection: “All human affairs rest upon probabilities. If man were immortal [on earth] he could be perfectly sure of seeing the day when everything in which he had trusted should betray his trust. He would break down, at last, as every great fortune, as every dynasty, as every civilization does. In place of this we have death.” The recognition that the death of the individual does not destroy the logical meaning of his utterances, that this meaning involves the ideal of an unlimited community, carries us into the heart of pure religion.
PROEM
THE RULES OF PHILOSOPHY[[25]]
Descartes is the father of modern philosophy, and the spirit of Cartesianism—that which principally distinguishes it from the scholasticism which it displaced—may be compendiously stated as follows:
1. It teaches that philosophy must begin with universal doubt; whereas scholasticism had never questioned fundamentals.
2. It teaches that the ultimate test of certainty is to be found in the individual consciousness; whereas scholasticism had rested on the testimony of sages and of the Catholic Church.
3. The multiform argumentation of the middle ages is replaced by a single thread of inference depending often upon inconspicuous premises.
4. Scholasticism had its mysteries of faith, but undertook to explain all created things. But there are many facts which Cartesianism not only does not explain but renders absolutely inexplicable, unless to say that “God makes them so” is to be regarded as an explanation.
In some, or all of these respects, most modern philosophers have been, in effect, Cartesians. Now without wishing to return to scholasticism, it seems to me that modern science and modern logic require us to stand upon a very different platform from this.
1. We cannot begin with complete doubt. We must begin with all the prejudices which we actually have when we enter upon the study of philosophy. These prejudices are not to be dispelled by a maxim, for they are things which it does not occur to us can be questioned. Hence this initial skepticism will be a mere self-deception, and not real doubt; and no one who follows the Cartesian method will ever be satisfied until he has formally recovered all those beliefs which in form he has given up. It is, therefore, as useless a preliminary as going to the North Pole would be in order to get to Constantinople by coming down regularly upon a meridian. A person may, it is true, in the course of his studies, find reason to doubt what he began by believing; but in that case he doubts because he has a positive reason for it, and not on account of the Cartesian maxim. Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts.
2. The same formalism appears in the Cartesian criterion, which amounts to this: “Whatever I am clearly convinced of, is true.” If I were really convinced, I should have done with reasoning and should require no test of certainty. But then to make single individuals absolute judges of truth is most pernicious. The result is that metaphysics has reached a pitch of certainty far beyond that of the physical sciences;—only they can agree upon nothing else. In sciences in which men come to agreement, when a theory has been broached it is considered to be on probation until this agreement is reached. After it is reached, the question of certainty becomes an idle one, because there is no one left who doubts it. We individually cannot reasonably hope to attain the ultimate philosophy which we pursue; we can only seek it, therefore, for the community of philosophers. Hence, if disciplined and candid minds carefully examine a theory and refuse to accept it, this ought to create doubts in the mind of the author of the theory himself.
3. Philosophy ought to imitate the successful sciences in its methods, so far as to proceed only from tangible premises which can be subjected to careful scrutiny, and to trust rather to the multitude and variety of its arguments than to the conclusiveness of any one. Its reasoning should not form a chain which is no stronger than its weakest link, but a cable whose fibers may be ever so slender, provided they are sufficiently numerous and intimately connected.
4. Every unidealistic philosophy supposes some absolutely inexplicable, unanalyzable ultimate; in short, something resulting from mediation itself not susceptible of mediation. Now that anything is thus inexplicable, can only be known by reasoning from signs. But the only justification of an inference from signs is that the conclusion explains the fact. To suppose the fact absolutely inexplicable, is not to explain it, and hence this supposition is never allowable.