{ Information = Comprehension × Extension } • Selection 4

Accordingly, if we are engaged in symbolizing and we come to such a proposition as “Neat, swine, sheep, and deer are herbivorous”, we know firstly that the disjunctive term may be replaced by a true symbol.  But suppose we know of no symbol for neat, swine, sheep, and deer except cloven-hoofed animals.  There is but one objection to substituting this for the disjunctive term;  it is that we should, then, say more than we have observed.  In short, it has a superfluous information.  But we have already seen that this is an objection which must always stand in the way of taking symbols.  If therefore we are to use symbols at all we must use them notwithstanding that.  Now all thinking is a process of symbolization, for the conceptions of the understanding are symbols in the strict sense.  Unless, therefore, we are to give up thinking altogeher we must admit the validity of induction.  But even to doubt is to think.  So we cannot give up thinking and the validity of induction must be admitted.

(Peirce 1866, p. 469)

Reference

  • Peirce, C.S. (1866), “The Logic of Science, or, Induction and Hypothesis”, Lowell Lectures of 1866, pp. 357–504 in Writings of Charles S. Peirce : A Chronological Edition, Volume 1, 1857–1866, Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1982.

Resources

This entry was posted in Abduction, Belief Fixation, C.S. Peirce, Comprehension, Deduction, Extension, Hypothesis, Icon Index Symbol, Induction, Inference, Information, Information = Comprehension × Extension, Inquiry, Intension, Logic, Logic of Science, Peirce, Peirce's Categories, Pragmatism, Scientific Method, Semiotic Information, Semiotics, Sign Relations and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

9 Responses to { Information = Comprehension × Extension } • Selection 4

  1. Pingback: { Information = Comprehension × Extension } • Comment 2 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

  2. Pingback: Survey of Semiotic Theory Of Information • 2 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

  3. Pingback: { Information = Comprehension × Extension } • Discussion 1 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

  4. Pingback: { Information = Comprehension × Extension } • Discussion 2 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

  5. Pingback: Survey of Semiotic Theory Of Information • 3 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

  6. Pingback: Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information • 4 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

  7. Pingback: { Information = Comprehension × Extension } • Discussion 1 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

  8. Pingback: Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information • 5 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

  9. Pingback: Survey of Pragmatic Semiotic Information • 6 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.