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Home > Quote from "Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism: Lecture I"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Pragmatism’ (pub. 22.04.13-18:28). 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-harvard-lectures-pragmatism-lecture-i-5.
Term: 
Pragmatism
Quote: 

What the pragmatist has his pragmatism for is to be able to say: here is a definition and it does not differ at all from your confusedly apprehended conception because there is no practical difference. But what is to prevent his opponent from replying that there is a practical difference which consists in his recognizing one as his conception and not the other? That is, one is expressible in a way in which the other is not expressible.

Pragmatism is completely volatilized if you admit that sort of practicality.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1903). Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism: Lecture I. MS [R] 301.
References: 
CP 5.33
Date of Quote: 
1903
URL: 

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