ONT Re: Excisions, Excuses, Exercises, Exergues, Exorabilities, Exordia, Experiments

[Jon Awbrey <jawbrey@oakland.edu>]

¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤

| Now, Gentlemen, it behooves me, at the outset of this course,
| to confess to you that in this respect I stand before you an
| Aristotelian and a scientific man, condemning with the whole
| strength of conviction the Hellenic tendency to mingle
| Philosophy and Practice.
|
| There are sciences, of course, many of whose results are almost immediately
| applicable to human life, such as physiology and chemistry.  But the true
| scientific investigator completely loses sight of the utility of what he
| is about.  It never enters his mind.  Do you think that the physiologist
| who cuts up a dog reflects while doing so, that he may be saving a human
| life?  Nonsense.  If he did, it would spoil him for a scientific man;
| and 'then' the vivisection would become a crime.  However, in physiology
| and in chemistry, the man whose brain is occupied with utilities, though
| he will not do much for science, may do a great deal for human life.
| But in philosophy, touching as it does upon matterswhich are, and
| ought to be, sacred to us, the investigator who does not stand
| aloof from all intent to make practical applications, will not
| only obstruct the advance of the pure science, but what is
| infinitely worse, he will endanger his own moral integrity
| and that of his readers.
|
| CSP, RATLOT, 107.
|
| Charles Sanders Peirce,
|'Reasoning and the Logic of Things',
|'The Cambridge Conferences Lectures of 1898',
| Edited by Kenneth Laine Ketner, Introduction
| by Kenneth Laine Ketner and Hilary Putnam,
| Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992.

¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤~~~~~~~~~¤