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Peirce’s Scientific Metaphysics
THE VANDERBILT LIBRARY OF AMERICAN PHILOSOPHY offers interpretive perspectives on the historical roots of American philosophy and on present innovative developments in American thought, including studies of values, naturalism, social philosophy, cultural criticism, and applied ethics.
Series Editors Herman J. Saatkamp, Jr., General Editor (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) Cornelis de Waal, Associate Editor (Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis) Editorial Advisory Board Kwame Anthony Appiah (Harvard) Larry Hickman (Southern Illinois University) John Lachs (Vanderbilt) John J. McDermott (Texas A&M) Joel Porte (Cornell) Hilary Putnam (Harvard) Ruth Anna Putnam (Wellesley) Beth J. Singer (Brooklyn College) John J. Stuhr (Pennsylvania State)
Peirce’s Scientific Metaphysics The Philosophy of Chance, Law, and Evolution
Andrew Reynolds
Vanderbilt University Press Nashville
© 2002 Vanderbilt University Press All rights reserved First Edition 2002 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reynolds, Andrew, 1966Peirce’s scientific metaphysics : the philosophy of chance, law, and evolution / Andrew Reynolds. p. cm. — (Vanderbilt library of American philosophy) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8265-1396-4 (alk. paper) 1. Peirce, Charles S. (Charles Sanders), 1839–1914— Contributions in metaphysics. 2. Metaphysics. I. Title. II. Series. B945.P44 R49 2002 110'.92—dc21 2001006557
To my parents
Contents
Texts and Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction 1
ix
xi
1
Scientific and Philosophical Background Naturphilosophie, Evolution, and the Law of Large Numbers 5 Agnosticism, Necessitarianism, and the Mechanical Philosophy 7 Synechism, Tychism, and Agapism 10 Motivations for a Cosmology 13 What Is a Hypothesis? 14 Synechism 17 Objective Idealism 18 A Summary Statement of the Cosmology Summary 25
2
Irreversibility in Physics
5
23
26
Nineteenth-Century Physics 27 The Laws of Motion 28 The Law of Vis Viva 30 The Conservation of Energy Principle 32 The Doctrine of the Conservation of Energy Conditions for Reversibility 39 The Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Kinetic Theory of Gases, and the Law of Large Numbers 41 Summary 47
37
viii
Peirce’s Scientific Metaphysics
3
Irreversibility in Psychics
49
The Law of Mind 49 Causation and Mental Activity 54 Teleology and the Action of Mind 57 The Problem of Mind–Matter Reductionism What Is Time? 64 Summary 75
4
59
Irreversibility in Physiology and Evolution
76
Physiology 77 The Molecular Theory of Protoplasm 77 Protoplasm, Habit, and Nutrition 81 Evolution 97 The Influence of Darwin 97 Peirce’s Classification of Evolutionary Philosophies Summary 108
5
Cosmology and Synechism
110
Order Out of Chaos 113 Variation and the Law of Large Numbers 118 Agapasm and the Law of Large Numbers 121 Rival Cosmologies 124 Elliptic Philosophy 125 Parabolic Philosophy 126 Hyperbolic Philosophy 130 Peirce’s Acquaintance with Modern Physics 137
6
Chance and Law
142
What Is Chance? 143 The Laws of Chance 157 The Law of Habit 159 The Redundancy Problem 161 The Incompatibility Problem 162 Peirce and Prigogine 173
7
Conclusion Notes
185
Bibliography Index
176
223
213
106
Texts and Abbreviations
The following sources of Peirce’s writings are referred to throughout the book by the indicated abbreviations. n.n:
Collected Papers of Charles Sande