C.S. Peirce
by sensuscommunist
I’ve just started reading the newest volume in the Chronological Edition of the Writings of Charles Sanders Peirce, which covers 1890-1892.
I could be entirely wrong on this, but there seems to be some strange new undercurrents in this volume that were not apparent in the previous ones (and it isn’t merely the transition to a Times font).
While my interests have always been more around the field of philosophies of desire, already there are a number of lines in this volume that deserve analysis.
“Yet the first origins of fruitful ideas can only be referred to chance. They promptly sink into oblivion if the mind is unprepared for them.” 19
“Perhaps logic is not in much need of philosophy.” 23
“The object of a theory is to render something intelligible. The object of philosophy [where is the indeterminate article?!] is to render everything intelligible.” 23
“Religion, to be true to itself, should demand the unconditional surrender of free thinking. Science, true to itself, cannot listen to such a demand for an instant.” 34
Finally, one that one could imagine Alain Badiou writing:
“Most of what is true in Hegel is a darkling glimmer of a conception which the mathematicians had long before made pretty clear, and which recent researches have still further illustrated.” 109
