Robin Catalogue:
A. MS., G-1909-1, April 6-May 24, 1909, pp. 1-51 (pp. 40-41 missing), with 45 pp. of variants.
Only the first sentence of the “Preface” published (7.313n1). CSP’s intellectual autobiography: the Metaphysical Club and the influence of Chauncey Wright and Nicholas St. John Green on his thinking. Abbot, who attended but one meeting of the Metaphysical Club, heard CSP on that occasion arguing in favor of Scholastic realism. Half a generation later, Abbot, in a book entitled “Scientific Theism” urged the same opinion. CSP recalls the occasion of writing the 1877-78 articles for the Popular Science Monthly. Pragmatism and pragmatisism distinguished. The fallibility of human reasoning. Sound reasoning and moral virtue. The plight of university instruction in logic. Whewell and J. S. Mill. Biographical notes on Duns Scotus and Ockham. Realism versus nominalism. Nominalism, concludes CSP, leads to absolute sceptisism. The meaning of “real”; the meaning of “universal.”