Research Catalog

Title

Peirce's scientific metaphysics : the philosophy of chance, law, and evolution / Andrew Reynolds.

Author

Reynolds, Andrew, 1966-

Publication

Nashville, TN : Vanderbilt University Press, 2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xii, 228 pages : illustrations; 24 cm.

Summary

"Peirce's Scientific Metaphysics is devoted to understanding Charles Sanders Peirce's (1839-1914) metaphysics from the perspective of the scientific questions that motivated his thinking." "While offering a detailed account of the scientific ideas and theories essential for understanding Peirce's metaphysical system (e.g., the irreversibility of time and the reversibility of physical laws, the statistical law of large numbers), this book is written in a manner accessible to the non-specialist. This will make it especially attractive to students of Peirce's philosophy who lack familiarity with the scientific and mathematical ideas that are so central to his thought. Those with an interest in the history and philosophy of science, especially concerning the application of statistical and probabilistic thinking to physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and cosmology, will find this discussion of Peirce's philosophy invaluable."--Jacket.

Series Statement

Vanderbilt library of American philosophy

Uniform Title

Vanderbilt library of American philosophy.

Subject

• Peirce, Charles S. 1839-1914
• Peirce, Charles S. 1839-1914
• Peirce, Charles S
• Metaphysics
• Metaphysics
• metaphysics
• Metaphysik
• Metafysica

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-222) and index.

Contents

Scientific and Philosophical Background -- Naturphilosophie, Evolution, and the Law of Large Numbers -- Agnosticism, Necessitarianism, and the Mechanical Philosophy -- Synechism, Tychism, and Agapism -- Motivations for a Cosmology -- What Is a Hypothesis? -- Synechism -- Objective Idealism -- A Summary Statement of the Cosmology -- Irreversibility in Physics -- Nineteenth-Century Physics -- The Laws of Motion -- The Law of Vis Viva -- The Conservation of Energy Principle -- The Doctrine of the Conservation of Energy -- Conditions for Reversibility -- The Second Law of Thermodynamics, the Kinetic Theory of Gases, and the Law of Large Numbers -- Irreversibility in Psychics -- The Law of Mind -- Causation and Mental Activity -- Teleology and the Action of Mind -- The Problem of Mind-Matter Reductionism -- What Is Time? -- Irreversibility in Physiology and Evolution -- Physiology -- The Molecular Theory of Protoplasm -- Protoplasm, Habit, and Nutrition -- Evolution -- The Influence of Darwin -- Peirce's Classification of Evolutionary Philosophies -- Cosmology and Synechism -- Order Out of Chaos -- Variation and the Law of Large Numbers -- Agapasm and the Law of Large Numbers -- Rival Cosmologies -- Elliptic Philosophy -- Parabolic Philosophy -- Hyperbolic Philosophy -- Peirce's Acquaintance with Modern Physics -- Chance and Law -- What Is Chance? -- The Laws of Chance -- The Law of Habit -- The Redundancy Problem -- The Incompatibility Problem -- Peirce and Prigogine.

ISBN

• 0826513964
• 9780826513960

LCCN

2001006557

OCLC

• ocm48390991
• 48390991
• SCSB-9480050

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library