Jon Schmidt, John Sowa, List,
Jeff D: If you substitute "texts" for "facts", as you have suggested, how does that constrain the inquiries? Jon Schmidt: Again, I suggest that it constrains the inquiries to discerning the author's intended meaning as expressed in the texts themselves. At this stage, we are only seeking to ascertain what Peirce's actual views were as communicated by his writings, not assessing whether they are correct. JD: Readers need to carry out the inquiries themselves and then check to see if they arrive at the same result. Carrying out these inquiries seems to involve facts that go beyond the words written on the pages. Jon S: I agree, but I see it as a subsequent step. First we test our interpretative hypotheses against "the words written on the pages" in a good-faith effort to make sure that we have properly understood them. Then we test them against reality by conducting our own inquiries along the same lines. Jeff D: I disagree with the suggestion that it should be a two-step process. Let me distinguish the following questions we can ask as readers of Peirce's writings: 1. How should we interpret a given text? 2. How should we understand the methods Peirce is employing in his inquiries? For my part, I think that we should try to understand and employ Peirce's methods at the same time we are reading the texts. That is, (1) and (2) go hand in hand. You really can't make much headway on (1) without considering how Peirce is using experimental methods to push inquiry forward. Often, the arguments he offers in the texts are really just signposts that he is offering readers in the hope that we will be able to follow his lines of inquiry. In many cases, I find that Peirce is moving so fast and covering so much ground that the only way to fill in the gaps is to carry out the inquiries myself--drawing on his instructions and suggestions offered in other texts. If I am not inquiring myself about the same questions he is asking using the same methods he is employing, I often entirely fail to follow the directions contained in those signposts. In such cases, I have to start again in order to figure out where I lost the thread. In your response, you seem to have fastened on the following question, which I think is quite different from (2) above: Are the results that Peirce arrived at using those methods correct, or do we arrive at different results when using the same methods to address the same questions? Even here, we can ask this question in a modest fashion by using this approach as a check on our use of his methods. If I arrive at a different result, then I take it as an indication that I've misunderstood or misapplied his methods. Having said that, I do take myself to be capable of engaging in my own inquiries using these methods, and I find it interesting when I arrive at a different result. What is more, one can ask if Peirce is using the right methods. Where we have doubts about his methods or results that persist, it is only natural to ask how might we improve on those methods in a manner that is consonant with the aim of seeking the truth about what is really the case. Whenever I head down this track on the List, I try to clarify what I'm doing by spelling out where my methods or results differ from Peirce's. Yours, Jeff D On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 11:43 AM Jeffrey Brian Downard <jeffrey.down...@nau.edu<mailto:jeffrey.down...@nau.edu>> wrote: Jon S, List, The illustration I offer can be made clearer by examining Newton's interpretation of Galileo's experiments involving the acceleration of balls rolling down inclined planes as compared to the parabolic motion of a projectile. If you are interested in reading Newton's works and examining his methods for formulating and testing hypotheses, then I recommend the Newton Project, which has the aim of transcribing all of his written works including his notebooks: http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/texts/newtons-works/scientific?n=25&cat=Science&name=1&tr=1&sort=date&order=asc The Newton project has been a model for the SPIN project--the main difference is that the latter is crowdsourcing the transcription of Peirce's manuscriptions. --Jeff Jeffrey Downard Associate Professor Department of Philosophy Northern Arizona University (o) 928 523-8354 ________________________________ From: Jeffrey Brian Downard Sent: Tuesday, July 14, 2020 8:20:10 PM To: Jon Alan Schmidt Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Re: The Logic of Interpretation Jon S, List How does the method you are employing compare to the methods articulated in "The Logic of Drawing History from Ancient Documents"? If you substitute "texts" for "facts", as you have suggested, how does that constrain the inquiries? Let me offer an example. If my aim is to interpret Peirce's writings on the study of gravity, then one thing I might do is to recreate his experiments by going out and swinging pendulums in the same locations--and then comparing my data, calculations and inferences to his. This approach to reading important texts in the history of science has been adopted by schools such as St. John's, where students learn to understand Newton's inquiries and theories by building an experimental apparatus--such as the one Netwon use for rolling balls down an inclined plane--and by then making the measurements for themselves. Having done so, they then draw out the conclusions from those measurements and compare their results to Newton's. In a number of places, Peirce says that something similar must be done to understand his inquiries in philosophy. Readers need to carry out the inquiries themselves and then check to see if they arrive at the same result. Carrying out these inquiries seems to involve facts that go beyond the words written on the pages. --Jeff Jeffrey Downard Associate Professor Department of Philosophy Northern Arizona University (o) 928 523-8354
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ► PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to peirce-L@list.iupui.edu . ► To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message NOT to PEIRCE-L but to l...@list.iupui.edu with no subject, and with the sole line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm . ► PEIRCE-L is owned by The PEIRCE GROUP; moderated by Gary Richmond; and co-managed by him and Ben Udell.
