SUO: Re: Determination
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| We come now to the question, what is the 'rationale' of these three kinds
| of reasoning. And first let us understand precisely what we intend by this.
| It is clear then that it is none of our business to inquire in what manner we
| think when we reason, for we have already seen that logic is wholly separate
| from psychology. What we seek is an explicit statement of the logical ground
| of these different kinds of inference. This logical ground will have two parts,
| 1st the ground of possibility and 2nd the ground of proceedure. The ground of
| possibility is the special property of symbols upon which every inference of
| a certain kind rests. The ground of proceedure is the property of symbols
| which makes a certain inference possible from certain premisses. The
| ground of possibility must be both discovered and demonstrated, fully.
| The ground of proceedure must be exhibited in outline, but it is not
| requisite to fill up all the details of this subject, especially
| as that would lead us too far into the technicalities of logic.
|
| As the three kinds of reasoning are entirely distinct, each must have
| a different ground of possibility; and the principle of each kind must
| be proved by that same kind of inference for it would be absurd to attempt
| to rest it on a weaker kind of inference and to rest it on one as strong as
| itself would be simply to reduce it to that other kind of reasoning. Moreover,
| these principles must be logical principles because we do not seek any other
| ground now, than a logical ground. As logical principles, they will not
| relate to the symbol in itself or in its relation to equivalent symbols
| but wholly in its relation to what it symbolizes. In other words
| it will relate to the symbolization of objects.
|
| CSP, CE 1, page 183.
|
| Charles Sanders Peirce, "Harvard Lectures 'On the Logic of Science'", (1865),
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, Volume 1, 1857-1866',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1982.
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