A Plea for a Peircean Turn in Analytic Philosophy
ABSTRACT: Criticisms of analytic philosophy have increased in intensity in the last decade, denouncing specifically its closing in on itself, which results in barrenness and ignorance of real human problems. The thought of C. S. Peirce is proposed as a fruitful way of renewing the analytic tradition and obviating these criticisms. While this paper is largely a reflection on Hilary Putnam’s study of the historical development of analytic philosophy, not only can some of its main roots be traced back to Peirce, but also the recent resurgence of pragmatism can be regarded as a pragmatist renovation of the analytic tradition. Further, Peirce’s thought offers suggestions for tackling some of the most stubborn problems in contemporary philosophy, thereby enabling us to shoulder once more the philosophical responsibility which has been abdicated by much of twentieth-century philosophy. The most accurate understanding of Peirce is to see him as a traditional and systematic philosopher, but one dealing with the modern problems of science truth, and knowledge from a valuable personal experience as a logician and an experimental researcher in the bosom of an interdisciplinary community of scientists and thinkers.
"Most people have never heard of him, but they will"
W. Percy, "The Divided Creature", 80
Criticisms of analytic philosophy have increased in intensity in the last decade, denouncing specifically its closing in on itself, resulting in barrenness and ignorance of real human problems. It is not only the genius loci, nor the echoes of his Sesquicentennial Congress held here in Boston in September, 1989, but within the solemn framework of a World Congress of Philosophy on t...
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...s, Cambridge, MA, 1990.
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In Symcox and Sullivan’s Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies, another side of not only Columbus but also his peers is brought to light. I have never read anything written by Columbus’s contemporaries before reading this book, so it gave me some refreshing insight as opposed to the repetitive glamorized content in high school textbooks. I also appreciate how legal documents such as the Treaty of Tordesillas between Spain and Portugal are included because they give a sense of what else was going on during the time that Columbus was going on these voyages.
Over all, A Well Regulated Militia is a book that provided us great details on how was the Second Amendment was influencing gun control early America. Our Founding Fathers made a right decision to create the Second Amendment to give more benefits for American citizens, but in the 21st century, many crimes abused the Second Amendment as a reason for them to break the laws. Congress needs to step up and take action on guns control to stop more tragedies that involves guns in the future like in The Dark Knight Rises movie massacre.
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On August 29, 2005, the third strongest and biggest hurricane ever recorded in American history hit the Gulf Coast at eight o’clock a.m. The interaction between a tropical depression and a tropical wave created a tropical storm later referred to as Hurricane Katrina (FAQS, 2013). Forming over the Bahamas, Hurricane Katrina gradually strengthened as it moved closer and closer to the Gulf of Mexico. Recorded on August 28th, 2005, Katrina jumped from a category three storm to a category five storm with maximum sustained winds up to 160 miles per hour. Although other hurricanes, such as Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Wilma, exceeded Katrina, this dominant storm was classified as the fourth most intense hurricane based its pressure capacity. Once Hurricane Katrina hit land, it was pronounced as a category four storm moving slowly. While people thought that the slow speed of this storm prevented trauma, records show that Katrina did more damage than any fast-moving storm could have ever achieved (Solanki, 2013). Katrina produced abundant debris. The debris was in such large quantity that if it was stacked together on a football field, the rubble would reach the elevation of ten and a half miles. The size of Katrina also caused 90,000 square miles to be affected. Once proclaimed a category three storm, Hurricane Katrina slowed to the speed of 155 miles per hour. At this point in time, Katrina proved to be the sixth most prevailing hurricane traced in history. (Solanki, 2013). Several different aspects of life were impacted by Hurricane Katrina such as availability of gasoline, economic issues, and the ability to have an adequate supply of drinking water (Solanki, 2013). Hurricane Katrina was a large storm ...
William James, a philosopher in the late 18th and early 19th century shared his view on the common misconceptions of pragmatists account for the truth. Although I am only going to reinforce James views on a couple of these, there were in fact eight misunderstandings in his eyes. There is a passage written by James on his thoughts of what he called an automatic sweetheart.
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“Paradise Found and Lost” from Daniel J. Boorstin’s The Discoverers, embodies Columbus’ emotions, ideas, and hopes. Boorstin, a former Librarian of Congress, leads the reader through one man’s struggles as he tries to find a Western Passage to the wealth of the East. After reading “Paradise Found and Lost,” I was enlightened about Columbus’ tenacious spirit as he repeatedly fails to find the passage to Asia. Boorstin title of this essay is quite apropos because Columbus discovers a paradise but is unable to see what is before him for his vision is too jaded by his ambition.
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Immanuel Kant’s (1724-1804) Critique of Pure Reason is held universally as a watershed regarding epistemology and metaphysics. There have been anticipations regarding the notion of the analytic especially in Hume. The specific terms analytic and synthetic were first introduced by Kant at the beginning of his Critique of Pure Reason book. The mistake that metaphysicians made was viewing mathematical judgments as being “analytic”. Kant came up with a description for analytic judgments as one that is merely elucidatory, that is, what is implicit is transformed into explicit. Kant’s examples utilize the judgments of subjects or rather predicates, for instance the square has four sides. The predicates content is always already accounted for in