Peirce on the Passions: the Role of Instinct, Emotion, and Sentiment in Inquiry and Action Robert J
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University of South Florida Scholar Commons Graduate Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 11-12-2008 Peirce on the Passions: The Role of Instinct, Emotion, and Sentiment in Inquiry and Action Robert J. Beeson University of South Florida Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd Part of the American Studies Commons Scholar Commons Citation Beeson, Robert J., "Peirce on the Passions: The Role of Instinct, Emotion, and Sentiment in Inquiry and Action" (2008). Graduate Theses and Dissertations. https://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/134 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Peirce on the Passions: The Role of Instinct, Emotion, and Sentiment in Inquiry and Action by Robert J. Beeson A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Philosophy College of Arts and Sciences University of South Florida Co-Major Professor: Martin R. Schönfeld, Ph.D. Co-Major Professor: Roy C. Weatherford, Ph.D. Sidney Axinn, Ph.D. Charles B. Guignon, Ph.D. Stephen P. Turner, Ph.D. Date of Approval: November 12, 2008 Keywords: mind, sign, self, consciousness, pragmatism, synechism, habit, belief, self-control, community © Copyright 2008, Robert J. Beeson Dedication In Memory of Willis H. Truitt Acknowledgments I wish to recognize several people, without whose contributions this dissertation would not have been completed. I would like to thank Kelly A. Parker and Vanderbilt University Press for permission to reproduce Figure 2.1 from his book The Continuity of Peirce’s Philosophy, Nashville, Tennessee: Vanderbilt University Press, 1998. I would also like to thank Maryann Ayim for permission to reproduce her catalog of the instincts from Peirce’s writings that appeared in her book Peirce’s View of the Roles of Reason and Instinct in Scientific Inquiry, Meerut, India: Anu Prakashan, 1982. Portions of Peirce’s work are reprinted by permission of the publishers from the COLLECTED PAPERS OF CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE: volumes 1-6, EDITED BY Charles Harshorne and Paul Weiss; VOLUMES 7-8, edited by Arthur Burks, Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, by the President and Fellows of Harvard College. I am indebted to Thomas L. Short for taking the time to answer a number of queries regarding Peirce’s elusive doctrine of a sign’s interpretant. I am grateful to Christopher Hookway for access to his essay “Iconicity and Logical Form,” and to Richard L. Trammell for providing a copy of his essay “Religion, Instinct, and Reason in the Thought of Charles S. Peirce.” Joanne Littell tended to the painstaking task of typing and editing the manuscript. My parents, John and Eva Beeson, supplied an abundance of encouragement. Finally, I am indebted beyond all measure, for her boundless patience and support, to my wife, Heather. Tables of Contents List of Figures iii Abstract iv Abbreviations vi Chapter One: The Scope of the Project and an Introduction to Peirce’s Work 1 A. The Scope and Structure of the Project 1 B. Flashes against a Cimmerian Darkness: Coming to Terms with Peirce 13 Chapter Two: The Modern English History of the Emotions 32 A. Introduction 32 B. Roots of the ‘Emotions’ 33 C. The Emergence of the Emotions 40 D. Thomas Brown and the Development of the Emotions 48 E. Alexander Bain and the New Psychology 59 F. From Spencer and Darwin to William James 68 Chapter Three: Peirce’s Semiotic Theory of Emotion 85 A. Streams and Trains: Peirce, James and Consciousness 85 B. Categories and Semiotic 99 C. Peirce’s General Theory of Signs 114 D. Peirce’s Semiotic Theory of Emotion 141 Chapter Four: The Self as Sign 158 A. The Negated Self 158 B. Consciousness, Self and Self-Control 166 C. Self as a Sign 181 Chapter Five: Ineluctable Dualisms and the Limits of Synechism 194 A. Pragmatisms: Peirce and James 194 B. The Bane of Pragmatism 200 C. Peirce’s Classification of the Sciences 215 D. Intractable Dichotomies 224 E. Self-Control as a Synechistic Strategy 238 i Chapter Six: Instinct, Emotion and Sentiment as Indispensable to Reason 247 A. The Evolution of a Philosophical Role for Instinct 247 B. Instinct, Habit and Inquiry 258 C. Reason and Instinct 274 D. Reason, Emotion and Sentiment 290 Chapter Seven: Community: The Social Instinct 305 A. Inquiry and Community: The Social Theory of Logic 305 B. The Nature of Community 307 C. Community, Reality, and Probability 313 D. Agapism 319 E. Community and Normativity 325 References 332 Appendices 349 Appendix A: The 1903 Classification of the Sciences 350 Appendix B: Peirce’s Drawing of the Serpentine Wall 351 Appendix C: Ayim’s Catalog of the Instincts 352 About the Author End Page ii List of Figures Figure 1. The 1903 Classification of the Sciences 350 Figure 2. Peirce’s Drawing of the Serpentine Wall 351 Figure 3 Ayim’s Catalog of the Instincts 352 iii Peirce on the Passions: The Role of Instinct, Emotion, and Sentiment in Inquiry and Action Robert J. Beeson ABSTRACT One of the least explored areas of C.S. Peirce’s wide range of work is his contributions to psychology and the philosophy of mind. This dissertation examines the corpus of this work, especially as it relates to the subjects of mind, habit, instinct, sentiment, emotion, perception, consciousness, cognition, and community. The argument is that Peirce’s contributions to these areas of investigations were both highly original and heavily influenced by the main intellectual currents of his time. An effort has been made to present Peirce’s philosophy without apology, within the conceptual framework and idiom of its time, and without appeal to a comprehensive view that Peirce, whose notorious lack of perseverance resulted in many unfinished projects, never articulated. Nevertheless, as several noted interpreters have argued, much of this work can be viewed through the lens of Peirce’s innovative theory of signs and the notion of the semiotic triad as its central unifying feature, despite the fact that the general theory was itself under continuous refinement and remained incomplete at the time of his death. Another hermeneutical device employed is William James’ better known and more accessible work which, when juxtaposed with Peirce’s ideas, serves to bring them into sharper relief. iv While general and historical in the presentation of material, this study seeks, at the same time, to engage the criticism of contemporary Peirce scholars in an attempt to account for several of the conundrums inherent in Peirce’s work. Among the problems with implications for his philosophy of mind and theory of inquiry are the limitations of his theory of continuity, his negative view of the self, his somewhat ambiguous position on the relation of psychology to logic, and the metaethical puzzle arising from application of his theory of probable inference to truly fateful decisions. These problems provide an interesting perspective and lend balance to the truly insightful contributions Peirce made to the discovery of the mind. v Abbreviations CN Charles Sanders Peirce: Contributions to The Nation, 3 vols., eds. Kenneth Laine Ketner and James Edward Cook (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1975-1979). CP Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, 8 volumes; vols.1-6 eds. Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931- 1935); vols. 7-8 ed. Arthur Burks (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1958). All references to writing in Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce will appear in the standard form: the volume in Arabic numerals, a period, and the paragraph in the volume cited, using the form CP. EP The Essential Peirce: Selected Philosophical Writings, 2 vols., eds. Nathan Houser, Christian Kloesel, and the Peirce Edition Project (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1992-99). HP Historical Perspectives on Peirce’s Logic of Science, 2 vols., ed. Carolyn Eisele (Berlin: Mouton Publishers, 1985). MS The Charles S. Peirce Papers, housed at Harvard University. Reference numbers are those developed by Richard Robin, Annotated Catalogue of the Papers of Charles S. Peirce (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1967). NEM The New Elements of Mathematics by Charles S. Peirce, 4 vols. in 5, ed. by Carolyn Eisele (The Hague: Mouton Publishers, 1976). RLT Charles Sanders Peirce, Reasoning and the Logic of Things: The Cambridge Conferences Lectures of 1898, ed. Kenneth Laine Ketner (Cambridge; Harvard University Press, 1992). SS Semiotic and Significs: The Correspondence Between Charles S. Peirce and Lady Victoria Welby, ed. Charles S. Hardwick with the assistance of James Cook (Bloomington and London: Indiana University Press, 1977). W Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, 6 vols. (of projected 30), Peirce Edition Project (Bloomington: Indiana Unviersity Press, 1982- ). vi Chapter One The Scope of the Project and an Introduction to Peirce’s Work “He finished almost nothing, but he began almost everything.” --Hacking, Representing and Intervening A. The Scope and Structure of the Project One of the many disciplines to which Charles Sanders Peirce lent insight and originality was psychology. “His interest in human nature was wide and varied, and, in his fragmentary way, he contributed notably to the study of various psychological problems – in particular, to problems relating to the threshold of sensation, and to various other problems of the psychology of perception.”1 Yet this is perhaps the least explored area of Peirce’s contributions. There has not been to my knowledge any book-length treatment of Peirce’s psychology despite his having written extensively on the philosophy of mind.