Help with Interpretation of this Quote by Charles Sanders Peirce

[binbagsss]

Understand me well. My appeal is to observation- observation that each of you must make for himself" . Charles Sanders Peirce

What is your interpretation of this?

 

[jedishrfu]

Without knowing the context, I would take it to mean each person must understand the world through observations first and not from what others have observed (second hand knowledge) and told you about.

 

[Stephen Tashi]

Without knowing the context,

Even knowing context may not help if we get the context from the wrong source!

https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/#access says:

In the 1930's volumes of The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce began to appear, with Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss, and Arthur Burks as their editors. For almost three decades these volumes, and various collections of entries culled from them were the only generally available source for Peirce's thoughts.

Unfortunately, many of the entries in the Collected Papers are not integral pieces of Peirce's own design, but rather stretches of writing that were cobbled together by the editors at their own discretion (sometimes one might almost say “whim”) from different Peircean sources. Often a single entry will consist of patches of writing from very different periods of Peirce's intellectual life, and these patches might even be in tension or outright contradiction with each other.

 

[binbagsss]

Without knowing the context, I would take it to mean each person must understand the world through observations first and not from what others have observed (second hand knowledge) and told you about.

what about the 'my appeal is to observation part' I thought that that may be concerning how others might observe him?

 

[jedishrfu]

I take it to mean that he is recommending to others to place observation above all other ways of gaining knowledge.

 

[JT Smith]

A little more...

"The phenomenon of surprise in itself is highly instructive in reference to this category because of the emphasis it puts upon a mode of consciousness which can be detected in all perception, namely, a double consciousness at once of an ego and a non-ego, directly acting upon each other. Understand me well. My appeal is to observation -- observation that each of you must make for himself."

A lot more...

https://www.google.com/books/editio...=en&gbpv=1&dq=Charles+Sanders+Peirce&pg=PA160

I don't think he'd be much fun at a cocktail party.

 

[Mary Conrads Sanburn]

Welcome to the Peirce Edition Project !

“Before all else, let me make the acquaintance of my reader, and express my sincere esteem for him and the deep pleasure it is to me to address one so wise and so patient.” Charles S. Peirce, W6: 169, 1888

Welcome to the home of the Peirce Edition Project! Our online doors are always open. Come inside, don’t shut your eyes, but open your mouth perhaps, and on each page Peirce will give you something pithy to make you wise. Experience is our only teacher, he said. May Peirce be your experience.

Charles S. Peirce (1839–1914) is recognized worldwide as one of humanity’s most rigorous, versatile, and seminal thinkers. That he is the principal originator of the philosophical movement called pragmatism is only one of his titles to our collective gratitude. He is also regarded as one of the most fundamental inquirers ever. The range and power of his contributions is such that he has become a stimulating influence on philosophers, humanists, social scientists, and hard scientists on every continent. He left behind a large corpus—more than twelve thousand pages in publications and about eight times as many pages in unpublished manuscripts—that covers all manner of topics in the sciences (including mathematics, geodesy, physics, chemistry, and astronomy) and the humanities (including logic, philosophy, semiotics, metaphysics, cosmology, history of sciences, linguistics, lexicography, and psychology).

Established in 1975–76, the Project’s long-term aim is to produce a 30-volume print edition of Peirce’s writings as well as an electronic edition embedded within a collaborative research platform. Writings of Charles S. Peirce is a selective but comprehensive chronological and critical edition designed to document the development of Peirce’s thought in every area and promote the critical study of his intellectual growth and interdisciplinary reach.

[ . . . ]

“The best maxim in writing, perhaps, is really to love your reader for his own sake.”

Charles S. Peirce, W1: 9, 17 March 1888

https://peirce.sitehost.iu.edu/

 

[chemisttree]

Hmmmm. Talking about me again? What did I miss? Never mind, I’ll find out for myself...

 

[jbriggs444]

Understand me well. My appeal is to observation- observation that each of you must make for himself" . Charles Sanders Peirce

What is your interpretation of this?

"Don't listen to me, you fool. Go figure it out yourself"