Question

Analyce a selection from Pierce’s Essay. How to make our ideas clear.(1878)

Answer 1

• In the essay titled, “How to make our ideas clear” the author Charles S. Peirce explains how we can state our arguments as effectively as possible in other words how to clarify our conceptions. The author supports the main idea by using the two distinctions between clear and obscure conceptions, and between distinct and confused conceptions. These descriptions themselves need clarification and understanding to allow your words and thoughts to be in sync. It gives you the advantage of having a concise and accurate argument that’s almost infallible.
• Charles S. Peirce states a clear idea is one which is so apprehended that it will be recognized wherever it is met, and so that no other will be mistaken for it. If it fails of this clearness, it is said to be obscure. The logicians speak of clearness being defined as nothing more than understanding an idea. In order to have a knowledge we have to be acquainted with it.
• Belief, he states, has three properties. It is something we are aware of, it appeases doubt, and it establishes rules of action (or habits). Peirce then arrives at the notion that we conceive an object based on our conception of the effects that it has. You can't be in disagreement with someone else if you both agree in regard "to all their sensible effects".