Orin, List: OH: For all three words above he revamped the entries and in all cases scaled back the theist assertions made in each.
It seems like the other way around to me, at least for "deist." OH: The *Imperial *definition of *deist *has the phrase "one who professes no form of religion, but follows the light of nature and reason as his only guides in doctrine and practice; a freethinker." CSP: 1. One who believes in the existence of a personal God, but in few or none of the more special doctrines of the Christian religion; one who holds to some of the more general propositions of the Christian faith concerning the Deity, but denies revelation and the authority of the church. 2. One who holds the opinion that there is a God, but no divine providence governing the affairs of men; one who holds that God is not only distinct from the world, but also separated from it. The *Imperial Dictionary *definition apparently makes no mention of God at all, while Peirce's two definitions in the *Century Dictionary* use that word three times and Deity once. How is that "scaling back the theist assertions"? What bearing do you see this as having on recent List discussions? Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 10:07 AM Orin Hargraves <[email protected]> wrote: > Among the words that Peirce defined for the *Century Dictionary *are: > deism, deist, theosophy. > > In each case he had the option of adopting unchanged the definition that > was in the *Imperial Dictionary of the English Language, *which served as > a template for the *Century, *and he did this often with words whose > standing definitions he found adequate. For all three words above he > revamped the entries and in all cases scaled back the theist assertions > made in each. > > The *Imperial *definition of *deist *has the phrase "one who professes no > form of religion, but follows the light of nature and reason as his only > guides in doctrine and practice; a freethinker." > > Peirce eliminates this from his definition and defines both Deist and > Deism in relation to a belief in God, without comment on the basis for it. > > The *Imperial *says *theosophy *is "a general name given to those systems > of philosophy which profess to attain to a knowledge of the Divine Being by > spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition, or special individual relations." > > Peirce's main definition is simpler than this and he adds an encyclopedic > note: "[theosophy] differs from most philosophical systems in that they > start from phenomena and deduce therefrom certain conclusions concerning > God, whereas theosophy starts with an assumed knowledge of God, directly > obtained, through spiritual intercommunion, and proceeds thereform to a > study and explanation of phenomena." > > The *Imperial Dictionary *is viewable online via the Hathi Trust; the *Century > Dictionary *online is http://www.global-language.com/CENTURY/. Finally, > Peirce's headword list is here: > http://www.pragmaticism.net/peirce_cendict_wordlist.pdf > > Orin Hargraves >
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