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Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Regulative Principle’ (pub. 05.08.16-09:51). 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-guess-riddle-17.
Term: 
Regulative Principle
Quote: 

…every fact of a general or orderly nature calls for an explanation; and logic forbids us to assume in regard to any given fact of that sort that it is of its own nature absolutely inexplicable. This is what Kant calls a regulative principle, that is to say, an intellectual hope. The sole immediate purpose of thinking is to render things intelligible; and to think and yet in that very act to think a thing unintelligible is a self-stultification. It is as though a man furnished with a pistol to defend himself against an enemy were, on finding that enemy very redoubtable, to use his pistol to blow his own brains out to escape being killed by his enemy.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1887-1888). A Guess at the Riddle. MS [R] 909.
References: 
W 6:206; CP 1.405
Date of Quote: 
1887-1888
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-guess-riddle-17