note:

I am neither addressing absolute skeptics, nor men in any state of fictitious doubt.

CSP, CP 5.319

architecture of theories

from Charles Sanders Peirce. "The Architecture of Theories." The Monist January 1891. 161-76.

If a man, being seized with the conviction that paper was a good material to make things of, were to go to work to build a papier mache house, with roof of roofing paper, foundations of pasteboard, windows of paraffined paper, chimneys, bathtubs, locks, etc., all of different forms of paper, his experiment would probably afford valuable lessons to builders. But it would certainly make a detestable hosue. So are those one-idea'd philosophers whose work is exceedingly interesting and instructive, and yet are quite unsound.
The remaining systems of philosophy have been of the nature of reforms, sometimes amounting to radical revolutions, suggested by certain difficulties which have been found to beset systems previously in vogue; and such ought certainly to be in large part the motive of any new theory. This is like partially rebuilding a house. the faults that have been committed are, first, that the dilapidations have generally not been sufficiently thoroughgoing, and second, that not sufficient pains has been taken to bring the additions into deep harmony with the really sound parts of the old structure.
When a man is about to build a house, what a power of thinking he has to do, before he can safely break ground! with what pains he has to excogitate the precise wants that are to be supplied! what a study to ascertain the most available and suitable materials, to determine the mode of construction to which those materials are best adapted, and to answer a hundred such questions! Now, without riding the metaphor too far, i think we may safely say that the studies preliminary to the construction of a great theory should be at least as deliberate and thorough as those that are preliminary to the building of a dwelling-house.

What an insight. In order to create a philosophical system, we have to make sure that we're not only using sound architectural design, but we also need to use the right materials and survey the land for the best place. Great analogy

peircean metaphysics

as some of you know i'm writing my sr thesis on ideas found in pierce's writings. i'm not sure exactly what about him or his theories i'm going to write about just yet, but i might start a regular feature in the site which quotes him and analyzes it a bit. either way here's a quote:

from The Fixation of Belief (Section V Paragraph 9):

"[Science's] most fundamental hypothesis, restated in more familiar language, is this: There are real things, whose characters are entirely independent of our opinions about them; those realities affect our senses according to regular laws, and, though our sensations are as different as our relations to the objects, yet by taking advantage of the laws of perception, we can ascertain by reasoning how things really are, and any man, if he have sufficient experience and reason enough about it, will be led to the one true conclusion."

there's a lot being said here: science assumes many things. there is a real world. there are real generals, including kinds and laws. human cognition depends on our individual quirks, but that doesn't impede us from finding out what's what. but to find out, we need both inquiry into the external world and introspection. and knowledge about this real world will lead to true statements about it.