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Home > Quote from "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Scholastic Realism’ (pub. 09.06.14-20:14). 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-some-consequences-four-incapacities-4.
Term: 
Scholastic Realism
Quote: 

But it follows that since no cognition of ours is absolutely determinate, generals must have a real existence. Now this scholastic realism is usually set down as a belief in metaphysical fictions. But, in fact, a realist is simply one who knows no more recondite reality than that which is represented in a true representation. Since, therefore, the word “man” is true of something, that which “man” means is real. The nominalist must admit that man is truly applicable to something; but he believes that there is beneath this a thing in itself, an incognizable reality. His is the metaphysical figment.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1868). Some Consequences of Four Incapacities. Journal of Speculative Philosophy, 2, 140-157.
References: 
W 2:239, CP 5.312
Date of Quote: 
1868
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-some-consequences-four-incapacities-4