Dissertation Abstract
Peirce, Psychologism, And the Doubt-Belief Theory of Inquiry
by
Jeffrey Lee Kasser
Degree: PH.D.
Year: 1999
Pages: 00181
Institution: THE
Advisor: Chair LOUIS E. LOEB
Source: DAI, 60, no. 05A (1999): p. 1600
Many scholars hold that Peirce came to reject
crucial aspects of his best-known and most influential essays, "The
Fixation of Belief" and "How To Make Our Ideas Clear." In
particular, they claim that Peirce repudiated the doubt-belief theory of
inquiry, at least in the form in which he presented it in these papers. The
reason most often offered on behalf of this view is that Peirce came to realize
that the doubt-belief theory, with its reliance upon such claims as that doubt
is irritating and aversive, while belief is calm and satisfactory, amounts to a
version of psychologism.
I
argue that Peirce rightly regarded his original papers as free of psychologism.
I try to provide a clear statement of what Peirce means by a psychological
account of logic, paying particular attention to his broad construal of "logic."
Once the relevant issues have been clarified, the usually cited evidence of
psychologism and of the later Peirce's recognition of psychologism seems much
less impressive than it has been taken to be. While Peirce did register a
complaint about the role of a psychological premise in the papers, his
objection has little or nothing to do with psychologism.
I
then try to show that Peirce defended very similar and very robustly
antipsychologistic positions long before and long after he published "Fixation"
and "How To." The standard view thus faces a serious problem; it
seems quite implausible that Peirce would have changed his mind twice (first
toward and then back away from psychologism) about a matter which was so important
to him.
Finally,
I try to explain in some detail how the appearance of psychologism in the two
famous essays can be reconciled with Peirce's antipsychologistic writings. I
criticize the main interpretations of the doubt-belief theory as psychologistic
and provide an alternative account. I suggest that Peirce offers a surprisingly
sophisticated naturalistic grounding for norms of inquiry.
SUBJECT(S)
Descriptor: PHILOSOPHY
Accession
No: AAG9929858
Provider: OCLC
Database: Dissertations