The Pennsylvania State University The Graduate School College of the Liberal Arts THE SLOW PERCOLATION OF FORMS: CHARLES PEIRCE’S WRITINGS ON PLATO A Thesis in Philosophy by David L. O’Hara © 2005 David L. O’Hara Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy August, 2005 The thesis of David L. O’Hara was reviewed and approved* by the following: Douglas R. Anderson Associate Professor of Philosophy Thesis Advisor Chair of Committee Daniel Conway Professor of Philosophy Sanford Schwartz Associate Professor of English Shannon Sullivan Associate Professor of Philosophy and Women's Studies John Christman Associate Professor of Philosophy and Political Science Interim Head of the Department of Philosophy *Signatures are on file in the Graduate School. ii Abstract This dissertation examines Charles S. Peirce’s writings on Plato. Peirce’s lifelong reading of Plato, and especially of Plato’s late dialogues in the 1890s, was influential in the development of Peirce’s Pragmatism. Peirce claimed that Plato misunderstood himself and was, late in his career, developing an evolutionary, three-level metaphysics and logic that anticipated Peirce’s Pragmaticism. The first half of the dissertation deals with Peirce and the history of philosophy. Chapters address the case for this study, Peirce’s method of studying the history of philosophy and his use of intellectual autobiography, and Peirce’s encounter with Platonism in America. A running theme throughout the dissertation is Peirce’s engagement with mysticism and American Transcendentalism, and especially with Emerson, Thoreau, and Henry James, Sr. Also discussed here is Peirce’s reception of stylometric analyses of the Platonic dialogues through Wincenty Lutoslawski’s Origin and Growth of Plato’s Logic. The section on stylometrics also briefly discusses Lewis Campbell and contemporary views on stylometrics in Brandwood, Thesleff, and Nails. The second half of the dissertation examines Peirce’s writings on particular Platonic dialogues and the consequences of those writings for Peirce’s Pragmaticism. Chapters cover the development of Peirce’s metaphysics, his ethics of inquiry, etymology and the ethics of terminology, and miracles and their relation to scientific and historical research. The chapter on miracles also examines the role Plato played in Peirce’s response to Hume on miracles. Individual chapters address Peirce’s writings on Plato’s Cratylus and Theaetetus. The Apology, Parmenides, and Sophist are also discussed. Especial attention is paid to Peirce’s unpublished manuscripts, as well as to his entries on “Platonic” and “Socratic” in the Century Dictionary, his own account of his debt to Aristotle, his intellectual autobiographies, and his manuscripts entitled “Metaphysical Axioms and Syllogisms,” “A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God,” “Philosophy and the Conduct of Life,” “On the Logic of Drawing History from Ancient Documents,” and “The Law of Mind.” Appendices include transcripts of Peirce’s unpublished partial translations of Plato’s Cratylus; a transcript of an unpublished letter from Peirce to Lady Welby on the Theaetetus; and a catalog of references to Plato in Peirce’s manuscripts. iii Table of Contents A Note on References ....................................................................................................vi Introduction....................................................................................................................1 Précis of the Dissertation ................................................................................................................1 Outline of the Dissertation..............................................................................................................7 Chapter 1: The Problem of Peirce and Plato: The need for this study .......................12 Introduction....................................................................................................................................12 The Case for the Present Study ...................................................................................................13 The Obstacles .................................................................................................................................14 Lack of an Adequate Catalogue .................................................................................................................14 Editorial Omissions ....................................................................................................................................16 Peirce’s Two Platos ....................................................................................................................................17 Peirce’s Uneven Study of Plato..................................................................................................................24 Scarce Scholarly Work on Peirce and Plato ..............................................................................................25 The need for an history of the development of Peirce’s thought on Plato .............................31 Peirce’s Reading of Plato in Greek............................................................................................................32 A Second Example: Peirce on Socratic “Induction”.................................................................................37 Henry James, Sr., Religion, and Platonism ...............................................................................................40 Consequences of Peirce’s Study of Plato’s Logic in the 1890s.................................................47 Chapter 2: Peirce on the History of Philosophy: development vs. “gems of thought”..52 Introduction....................................................................................................................................53 Peirce’s method and logic of the history of philosophy ............................................................55 Historical development as the key to understanding thought .................................................56 The Theme of Development in Peirce’s Autobiographical Writings .......................................................59 Darwin and the Evolution of Ideas ............................................................................................................65 Radical genius, “representative men,” and evolution................................................................................67 The Development of Peirce’s View of Philosophical Historiography .....................................69 Fisch on Peirce’s work with Allan Marquand: Why Peirce became a philologist...................................69 Peirce’s reviews of the History of Philosophy in The Nation...................................................................77 The Development of Peirce’s Reading of Plato ........................................................................................89 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................93 Chapter 3: Cutting the Gems of Thought: Peirce, Transcendentalism, and American Platonism......................................................................................................................98 The Platonistic Strain in American Thought...........................................................................101 Pilgrim’s Historical Regress.......................................................................................................104 The Law of Mind .........................................................................................................................107 “In the Neighborhood of Concord”: The Influence of Transcendentalism .........................110 Peirce’s Definition of “Platonic”................................................................................................119 Lutoslawski’s Logical Plato........................................................................................................129 iv Peirce’s Translation of the Apology and Ransdell on the Socratic........................................137 How could Peirce the Aristotelian be a Platonist? ..................................................................141 Chapter 4: Phusis and Logos: Peirce and Plato’s Cratylus........................................149 Introduction..................................................................................................................................150 The importance of the Cratylus for Peirce................................................................................151 The major themes and arguments of Plato’s Cratylus............................................................153 A brief account of Peirce on etymologies, definitions, and signification ..............................155 Peirce’s commentaries on the Cratylus .....................................................................................163 a) MSS 986 and 1161...............................................................................................................................164 b) MS 434..................................................................................................................................................166 Conclusions...................................................................................................................................168 Chapter 5: Dialogue and Reality: