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CP 1.167. Can we, then, ever be sure that anything in the real world is continuous? Of course, I am not asking for an absolute certainty; but can we ever say that it is so with any ordinary degree of security? This is a vitally important question. I think that we have one positive direct evidence of continuity and on the first line but one. It is this. We are immediately aware only of our present feelings -- not of the future, nor of the past. The past is known to us by present memory, the future by present suggestion. But before we can interpret the memory or the suggestion, they are past; before we can interpret the present feeling which means memory, or the present feeling that means suggestion, since that interpretation takes time, that feeling has ceased to be present and is now past. So we can reach no conclusion from the present but only from the past. END
It is time to remark on the fact that Peirce is seen as a Realist and that a Realist is one who takes reality to include the physical world. We seem to be awash in enthusiastic notions that everything is illusion. Hardly so. Sean Carroll is on the lecture circuit as an interpreter of the present state of things quantum and seems to favor a many worlds interpretation of how reality works. Peirce is not inimical to such a view, nor am I. But it does not obviate the premise that our existence and lives are real.
I am questioning the impression one gets from many who speak of an afterlife that this world is illusory and ultimately disposable along with our body. I take it as gospel that if there is a Deity, Creator, Source -- which I affirm and assume -- the creation of matter and all that has to do with it is just as precious as the creation of a cosmos that has many dimensions and gradations of consciousness.
Peirce in a simple and direct way tells us that continuity is proved by the simple fact that we cannot even access a feeling save by remembering it. This takes time. Time? Yes, time.
Triadic Philosophy asserts that all is real, reality is all. This seems to me to be the only way to go. We cannot live in a binary world where we assume that everything is yes or no. We cannot life in a world that divides between heart and mind, subject and object, me and you. If I say I am I that's true. But so is "I am we" true. And so is "I am all".
Biology has made giant steps since I studied it decades ago. It is now a theater of astronomical numbers in reference to the operation of our body. It seems to me that we cannot maintain there is no mind behind everything. I cannot prove it but but I can honor it as a fact of my existence. And I do.
When I say I do it may be in my memory but as I utter it it stands as an assertion and if I want to say such assertions are real and have immediate life, I can. But the fact that I may have had to refer back to even know I said it seems to me immaterial.
Therefore I do not trouble myself with Peirce's argument. Continuity to me is proved by common sense, the fact that things do continue, that they continue whether we know it or not.
All of Pierce's philosophy can be common sense.
It is time to remark on the fact that Peirce is seen as a Realist and that a Realist is one who takes reality to include the physical world. We seem to be awash in enthusiastic notions that everything is illusion. Hardly so. Sean Carroll is on the lecture circuit as an interpreter of the present state of things quantum and seems to favor a many worlds interpretation of how reality works. Peirce is not inimical to such a view, nor am I. But it does not obviate the premise that our existence and lives are real.
I am questioning the impression one gets from many who speak of an afterlife that this world is illusory and ultimately disposable along with our body. I take it as gospel that if there is a Deity, Creator, Source -- which I affirm and assume -- the creation of matter and all that has to do with it is just as precious as the creation of a cosmos that has many dimensions and gradations of consciousness.
Peirce in a simple and direct way tells us that continuity is proved by the simple fact that we cannot even access a feeling save by remembering it. This takes time. Time? Yes, time.
Triadic Philosophy asserts that all is real, reality is all. This seems to me to be the only way to go. We cannot live in a binary world where we assume that everything is yes or no. We cannot life in a world that divides between heart and mind, subject and object, me and you. If I say I am I that's true. But so is "I am we" true. And so is "I am all".
Biology has made giant steps since I studied it decades ago. It is now a theater of astronomical numbers in reference to the operation of our body. It seems to me that we cannot maintain there is no mind behind everything. I cannot prove it but but I can honor it as a fact of my existence. And I do.
When I say I do it may be in my memory but as I utter it it stands as an assertion and if I want to say such assertions are real and have immediate life, I can. But the fact that I may have had to refer back to even know I said it seems to me immaterial.
Therefore I do not trouble myself with Peirce's argument. Continuity to me is proved by common sense, the fact that things do continue, that they continue whether we know it or not.
All of Pierce's philosophy can be common sense.
