My thanks for the reference. In general, we agree. I recall that when Quine joined Harvard, he had been encouraged in the reading of Peirce's literature (I forget by whom, but almost certainly a student of Joyce) but he dismissed the exclusively present literature.
It's not clear why. Exactly. But there are hints as to why the dismissal of the Peirce family by the Harvard philosophy department is not isolated to Quine. It may have been related to the homophobia prevalent at the time at Harvard and an objection to the Peirce family "Greek" sexuality and ethics. I'll happily accept documented correction or confirmation of this view. Regards, Steven On Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 11:51 AM, Clark Goble <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Apr 3, 2015, at 11:55 AM, Steven Ericsson-Zenith <[email protected]> > wrote: > > I'll defend the Vienna Circle just a little further because I believe that > they have been misunderstood and mistreated by lesser men in the twentieth > century and that there is some correction going on now. Quine stands alone, > and as Clark said, he has his own problems. He's also responsible to > ignoring the Peirce contributions explicitly, that does not endear him to > me. > > I am also less convinced that Peirce was unknown to them, although there > is little explicit consideration given. Hilbert certainly had Peirce in > mind. > > > I definitely think that they were treated quite unfairly. People who > continue to praise Quine while dismissing the positivists forget that he > thought Carnap the greatest philosopher of the 20th century. That said I > think the recent (and surprising) resurgence of interest in the Vienna > Circle hasn’t really deal well with their failures. I think the reason the > movement failed was not because of refutations (contra Popper’s annoying > comments) but just because it wasn’t productive. That said I do think some > of Quine’s contributions were pretty devastating even if they more or less > ended up re-adoptiong Peirce’s own positions relative to verification. > > Quine actually wrote a paper on his relationship to the pragmatists. I > have a copy in a collection at home. It becomes fairly clear that he really > doesn’t know them well, although he is somewhat familiar with them. So I > tend to think he was having to rediscover these positions the hard way > rather than by rediscovering them in texts. I know others disagree on that > point. I’m hardly an expert on the history Quine so they might be right. > Regardless of whether there’s a genealogical connection it does seem clear > many characterize Quine as a pragmatic philosopher due to his positions. He > definitely engages with some of Peirce’s logical work early in the 30’s. > And of course Quine wasn’t just influenced by Carnap but also Lewis who was > explicitly influenced by Peirce. (Often mangling him in my view, but the > influence is there) > > Peter Godfrey-Smith wrote a nice treatment of Quine and Pragmatism for *The > Blackwell Companion to Quine* that’s well worth reading. It notes a lot > of the complexities that Quine’s own paper on the subject perhaps downplays > too much. (Although I do find Quine’s paper worth reading) > > http://petergodfreysmith.com/Quine_Pragmatism_PGS_2013_FD.pdf > > I should probably chime out of discussing the Vienna Circle though. I’ll > confess it’s been ages since I’ve engaged with them carefully. I just tend > to think it unfortunate how they’ve been made the boogey-men of philosophy > the past decades, usually with egregiously uncharitable readings. > > > > > > > ----------------------------- > PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON > PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to > [email protected] . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L > but to [email protected] with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the > BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm > . > > > > > >
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