Peirce and the Threat of Nominalism

Half-title......Page 3
Title......Page 5
Copyright......Page 6
Dedication......Page 7
Contents......Page 9
Preface......Page 11
Abbreviations......Page 14
CHAPTER 1 Nominalism as demonic doctrine......Page 15
The essence of nominalism......Page 18
The evils of nominalism......Page 21
Summary......Page 25
CHAPTER 2 Logic, philosophy and the special sciences......Page 27
The nominalist view of the science of inquiry......Page 28
The science of inquiry as a natural science......Page 30
The science of inquiry as an a priori science of the mind......Page 36
Peirce’s conception of the science of inquiry......Page 42
The subject matter of the science of inquiry......Page 45
A non-circular foundation for the science of inquiry......Page 47
The science of inquiry as experimental science......Page 50
Conclusion......Page 54
CHAPTER 3 Continuity and the problem of universals......Page 56
Continuity and the nominalism question......Page 57
Continuity and infinity......Page 59
Continua versus collections......Page 62
Nominalism as a theory of general concepts......Page 74
Conclusion......Page 76
CHAPTER 4 Continuity and meaning: Peirce’s pragmatic maxim......Page 78
Peirce’s pragmatic maxim......Page 80
Peirce’s critique of the nominalist theory of meaning......Page 86
CHAPTER 5 Logical foundations of Peirce’s pragmatic maxim......Page 92
Grounding the maxim in the theory of symbols......Page 95
Step 1: terms signify inferential habits......Page 98
Step 2: habits signified by terms have meaning only in application to objects......Page 100
Step 3: predicating a term of an object requires an index......Page 102
Step 4: the meaning of a symbol is given by its empirical implications......Page 104
Step 5: the empirical implications of a symbol pertain to practical consequences......Page 106
Step 6: the practical effects of a symbol are experimental phenomena......Page 110
The generality of Peirce’s pragmatic analysis of symbols......Page 113
The superiority of Peirce’s defence of the pragmatic maxim......Page 116
Conclusion......Page 119
CHAPTER 6 Experience and its role in inquiry......Page 122
The nature of experience: methodological issues......Page 123
The nature of immediate experience......Page 127
Peirce on perceptual judgements......Page 133
Conclusion......Page 142
Peirce’s view of the problem of knowledge......Page 144
The conditions that prompt inquiry......Page 146
Devising hypotheses by abduction......Page 147
Deducing the testable consequences of hypotheses......Page 155
Testing hypotheses by induction......Page 158
Conclusion......Page 169
Nominalism and the problem of truth......Page 171
From the theory of symbols to the theory of truth......Page 174
Peirce’s correspondence theory of truth......Page 175
Peirce’s coherence theory of truth......Page 178
Peirce’s consensus theory of truth......Page 181
Peirce’s instrumentalist theory of truth......Page 184
Conclusion......Page 188
CHAPTER 9 Order out of chaos: Peirce’s evolutionary cosmology......Page 190
The case for the reality of laws......Page 191
Synechism as a hypothesis: methodological considerations......Page 193
Potentiality, teleology and the explanation of reality......Page 196
Nullity: the universe of pure being......Page 198
The evolution of qualitative possibilities......Page 203
The evolution of existence......Page 208
The evolution of lawfulness......Page 212
Conclusion......Page 216
CHAPTER 10 A universe of chance: foundations of Peirce’s indeterminism......Page 219
Necessitarianism: the case against objective chance......Page 220
Initial doubts about necessitarianism......Page 222
Necessitarianism as a presupposition of inquiry......Page 224
The empirical case for necessitarianism......Page 230
The explanation of growth......Page 233
The explanation of variety......Page 235
The explanation of consciousness......Page 238
Conclusion......Page 244
CHAPTER 11 From inquiry to ethics: the pursuit of truth as moral ideal......Page 246
Inquiry as an ethical pursuit......Page 247
Epistemic individualism versus communal rationality......Page 252
From individual belief to communal conduct......Page 255
Conclusion......Page 258
Bibliography......Page 261
Index......Page 269