Malcolm, I wonder if Peirce's philosophy is immune to the following criticism of Popper:
"From Plato until today, most philosophers have either been nominalists * or else what I have called essentialists. They are more interested in the (essential) meaning of words than in the truth and falsity of theories. I often present the problem in the form of a table (see the next page). My thesis is that the left side of this table is unimportant, as compared to the right side: what should interest us are theories; truth; argument. If so many philosophers and scientists still think that concepts and conceptual systems (and problems of their meaning, or the meaning of words) are comparable in importance to theories and theoretical systems (and problems of their truth, or the truth of statements), then they are still suffering from Platos main error." With all the best. Sung ____________________________________________________ Sungchul Ji, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy Rutgers University Piscataway, N.J. 08855 732-445-4701 www.conformon.net > <http://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ZopY3eQAAAAJ&hl=en> > http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0049237X08712047 > Studies in Logic and the Foundations of Mathematics 52:333-373, 1968; DOI: > 10.1016/S0049-237X(08)71204-7 > *Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science III* > *Epistemology Without a Knowing Subject* > K.R. Popper > > This chapter presents the author's view on epistemology. This chapter > introduces the author's various theses, and his explanation of the third > world and the world of objective contents of thought, especially of > scientific and poetic thoughts and of works of art. A biological approach > to the third world is provided in the chapter to defend the existence of > an > autonomous world by a kind of biological or evolutionary argument. The > chapter illustrates the objectivity and the autonomy of this third world. > With the evolution of the argumentative function of language, criticism > becomes the main instrument of further growth. The autonomous world of the > higher functions of language becomes the world of science. The chapter > provides an appreciation and criticism of Brouwer's epistemology and > discusses the logic and the biology of discovery. It presents the concept > of discovery, humanism, and self-transcendence. >
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