Joe,

After setting it aside for awhile, i've just returned to your original 
question: What are the "two fundamental psychological laws" upon which 
Peirce says the method of tenacity is based? I have another answer to 
suggest (at least i don't recall this exact suggestion being made 
before).

I think the two "laws" are actually stated in the paragraph (the first 
of of section V of FoB), but only one is stated directly in lawlike 
fashion: "a steady and immovable faith yields great peace of mind." The 
second is only implied, specifically in the image of the ostrich and 
Peirce's comment on the ostrich strategy, which immediately precedes his 
remark about the  "two fundamental psychological laws". Stated more 
directly, this "law" is that a fixed habit of ignoring inconvenient 
facts also yields peace of mind. Thus it is a sort of negative 
counterpart to the "faith" of the first "law", which may justify the 
coupling of the two in Peirce's phrase. Even the casual manner in which 
these "laws" are mentioned is appropriate, given the contrast between 
the logical and the psychological which Peirce develops in this essay, 
and the contempt for "psychological laws" which is thinly veiled by his 
irony.

Well, that's how i read it this time, anyway.

        gary F.

}She'll confess it by her figure and she'll deny it to your face. 
[Finnegans Wake 271]{

gnoxic studies }{ http://users.vianet.ca/gnox/gnoxic.htm
 


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