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Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Inference’ (pub. 20.10.15-17:53). 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-algebra-logic-3.
Term: 
Inference
Quote: 

A cerebral habit of the highest kind, which will determine what we do in fancy as well as what we do in action, is called a belief. The representation to ourselves that we have a specified habit of this kind is called a judgment. A belief-habit in its development begins by being vague, special, and meagre; it becomes more precise, general, and full, without limit. The process of this development, so far as it takes place in the imagination, is called thought. A judgment is formed; and under the influence of a belief-habit this gives rise to a new judgment, indicating an addition to belief. Such a process is called an inference; the antecedent judgment is called the premise; the consequent judgment, the conclusion; the habit of thought, which determined the passage from the one to the other (when formulated as a proposition), the leading principle.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1880). On the Algebra of Logic. American Journal of Mathematics, 3, 15-57.
References: 
W 4:164; CP 3.160
Date of Quote: 
1880
URL: 

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