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Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Science’ (pub. 09.08.17-10:14). Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce's Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. Retrieved from http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-adirondack-summer-school-lectures-2.
Term: 
Science
Quote: 

…what I mean by a “science,” both for the purpose of this classification & in general, is the life devoted to the pursuit of truth according to the best known methods on the part of a group of men who understand one another’s ideas and works as no outsider can. It is not what they have already found out which makes their business a science; it is that they are pursuing a branch of truth according, I will not say, to the best methods, but according to the best methods that are known at the time. I do not call the solitary studies of a single man a science. It is only when a group of men, more or less in intercommunication, are aiding and stimulating one another by their understanding of a particular group of studies as outsiders cannot understand them, that I call their life a science.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1905). Adirondack Summer School Lectures. MS [R] 1334.
References: 
MS [R] 1334:11-13
Date of Quote: 
1905
URL: 

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