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CP 1.132 As Lucretius says,†1 the atoms swerve from the paths to which the laws of mechanics would confine them. I do not now inquire whether there is or not any positive evidence that this is so. What I am at present urging is that this arbitrariness is a conception occurring in logic, encouraged by mathematics, and ought to be regarded as a possible material to be used in the construction of a philosophical theory, should we find that it would suit the facts. We observe that phenomena approach very closely to satisfying general laws; but we have not the smallest reason for supposing that they satisfy them precisely. END
Freedom is not another word for nothing left to lost. It is a word for the probability that there may be a few exceptions. An inference is that is there is one exception only that is enough to pause us and make us think. Nothing certain. There is nothing you can entirely depend on.
Now if this was simply a fact of science before quantum it would perhaps enable us to forget it and proceed with the idea that things are fixed and stable and true. But quantum reveals that at the most minuscule level there is never certainty. But even more, the fact of observation, a participant's intervention, can turn a wave into a particle. That is huge.
It means that whatever it is we are too. We are connected, part of the same system, the same way we become part of anything we are involved with. We can think whatever we want, but this uncertainty and this certainty about observation, are part of reality that will not alter regardless of what you think.
There are very few things about which that can be said.
Peirce, by making this uncertainty fundamental, paved the way for our world of subjectivity, observation and movement toward the individual as the source of reality by virtue of inner observation.
And yes Lucretius knew this before Peirce made it part of a triadic viewpoint.
Freedom is not another word for nothing left to lost. It is a word for the probability that there may be a few exceptions. An inference is that is there is one exception only that is enough to pause us and make us think. Nothing certain. There is nothing you can entirely depend on.
Now if this was simply a fact of science before quantum it would perhaps enable us to forget it and proceed with the idea that things are fixed and stable and true. But quantum reveals that at the most minuscule level there is never certainty. But even more, the fact of observation, a participant's intervention, can turn a wave into a particle. That is huge.
It means that whatever it is we are too. We are connected, part of the same system, the same way we become part of anything we are involved with. We can think whatever we want, but this uncertainty and this certainty about observation, are part of reality that will not alter regardless of what you think.
There are very few things about which that can be said.
Peirce, by making this uncertainty fundamental, paved the way for our world of subjectivity, observation and movement toward the individual as the source of reality by virtue of inner observation.
And yes Lucretius knew this before Peirce made it part of a triadic viewpoint.
