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Home > Quote from "Reply to the Necessitarians: Rejoinder to Dr. Carus"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Chance’ (pub. 22.10.15-16:39). 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-reply-necessitarians-rejoinder-dr-carus-1.
Term: 
Chance
Quote: 

I do not countenance the idea that Bible stories, for instance, show that nature’s laws were violated; though they may help to show that nature’s laws are not so mechanical as we are accustomed to think. But I only propose to explain the regularities of nature as consequences of the only uniformity, or general fact, there was in the chaos, namely, the general absence of any determinate law. In fact, after the first step is taken, I only use chance to give room for the development of law by means of the law of habits.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1893). Reply to the Necessitarians: Rejoinder to Dr. Carus. The Monist, 3, 526-570.
References: 
The Monist, 3, p. 552; CP 6.606
Date of Quote: 
1893
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-reply-necessitarians-rejoinder-dr-carus-1