Charles Sanders Peirce Quotes
Charles Sanders Peirce was a 19th and early 20th-century American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, regarded as the founder of pragmatism and one of the most original thinkers in the American philosophical tradition. His pragmatic maxim, formulated in How to Make Our Ideas Clear in 1878, holds that the meaning of any idea consists in the conceivable practical effects of its object. The quotes below are attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce, organized by topic.
Charles Sanders Peirce on Knowledge
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object.”
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“We must not begin by talking of pure ideas, vagabond thoughts that tramp the public roads without any human habitation, but must begin with men and their conversation.”
Charles Sanders Peirce on Life
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“Every man, indeed, is a foundling, abandoned in this large universe.”
Charles Sanders Peirce on Mind
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“Doubt is an uneasy and dissatisfied state from which we struggle to free ourselves and pass into the state of belief.”
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“It seems a strange thing that a sign should leave its interpreter to supply a part of its meaning.”
Charles Sanders Peirce on Truth
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“The opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate, is what we mean by the truth.”
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“Cherish your doubts, for doubt is the attendant of truth.”
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“There is no greater stupidity than to deny what is supported by overwhelming evidence.”