John, List: I am not at all disputing that application is necessary for full understanding. After all, the logic of interpretation that I described in the first two posts of this thread is itself an application of Peirce's logic of abduction/retroduction. I am simply pointing out that one must *first* read and understand Peirce's writings in order to know what his methods were, *before *attempting to implement them.
What is typically the initial step when undertaking a complex task? "Read all instructions before proceeding." That is surely necessary when the goal is thinking and reasoning in accordance with Peirce's "how-to manual," as well as more mundane examples like cooking, skiing, or growing flowers. Otherwise, how would we know which ingredients, equipment, or seeds to buy? Or how to measure and mix the ingredients, put on and use the equipment, or plant and care for the seeds? I vividly recall an exercise in about fifth grade when the teacher handed out a worksheet with some 20 items listed. #1 was "Read all instructions before doing anything," and #2 was "Write your name in the upper right corner." #3-19 were things like "Cross out the word 'out' in this sentence" and "Draw a picture of yourself on the back of the page." Then #20 was "Disregard all instructions except #1 and #2." Obviously the lesson hit home for me, since I still remember it decades later. Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Sun, Jul 19, 2020 at 11:31 PM John F. Sowa <[email protected]> wrote: > Jon, > > Peirce's writings are a "How-to manual" about thinking and reasoning. If > you have a how-to manual about cooking, skiing, or growing flowers, it's > impossible to understand the manual without doing the work. If it's a > manual on cooking, you have to buy the ingredients and follow the recipes. > If it's about skiing, you have to buy the equipment, go out on the slopes, > and practice. If it's about growig flowers, you have to buy the seeds, > plant them (indoors or outdoors), and follow the instructions. > > What Jeff wrote (copy below) is advice about following Peirce's how-to > manual about thinking and reasoning. Reading a manual about thinking is > not sufficient. You have to get the ingredients (food for thought), get > the utensils (paper, ink, computers, or whatever), and follow the recipes > for analyzing and solving some significant problems. > > JAS> Observation - What does [Peirce's] text say? Interpretation - What > does the text mean? Application - How does the text work? > > No. You can't learn cooking, skiing, or growing flowers by analyzing the > texts. You have to do the much harder work of cooking food, skiing down a > mountain, or growing actual flowers. After doing the actual work, you can > understand the manual at a much deeper level, and you can then discover > fine points that you missed on the first reading. > > It also helps to watch expert cooks, skiers, and gardners in action. That > is why I recommended Peirce's _Photometric Researches_ as an example of > Peirce applying his methods of analysis to a significant problem. > > John >
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