ONT Re: De In Esse Predication
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
DEIP. Note 15
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
| Introduction to the Logic of Quantity (cont.)
|
| I formerly defined the possible as that which in a given
| state of information (real or feigned) we do not know not
| to be true. But this definition today seems to me only a
| twisted phrase which, by means of two negatives, conceals
| an anacoluthon. We know in advance of experience that
| certain things are not true, because we see they are
| impossible.
|
| Thus, if a chemist tests the contents of a hundred bottles for fluorine,
| and finds it present in the majority, and if another chemist tests them
| for oxygen and finds it in the majority, and if each of them reports his
| results to me, it will be useless for them to come to me together and say
| that they know infallibly that fluorine and oxygen cannot be present in the
| same bottle; for I see that such infallibility is 'impossible'. I know it
| is not true, because I satisfy myself that there is no room for it even in
| that ideal world of which the real world is but a fragment. I need no
| sensible experimentation, because ideal experimentation establishes
| a much broader answer to the question than sensible experimentation
| could give.
|
| It has come about through the agencies of development that man is
| endowed with intelligence of such a nature that he can by ideal
| experiments ascertain that in a certain universe of logical
| possibility certain combinations occur while others do not
| occur. Of those which occur in the ideal world some do
| and some do not occur in the real world; but all that
| occur in the real world occur also in the ideal world.
| For the real world is the world of sensible experience,
| and it is a part of the process of sensible experience
| to locate its facts in the world of ideas. This is what
| I mean by saying that the sensible world is but a fragment
| of the ideal world.
|
| C.S. Peirce, 'Collected Papers', CP 3.527,
|"The Logic of Relatives", 'Monist', vol. 7,
| pp. 161-217, 1897.
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o