User:The Tetrast/2

New Draft: Classification of the Sciences (Peirce)

intro
Peirce did considerable work over a period of years on the classification of sciences (including mathematics). In 1902, he divided science into Theoretical and Practical. Theoretical Science was comprised of Science of Discovery and Science of Review, the latter of which he also called "Synthetic Philosophy", a name taken from the title of the vast work, written over many years, by Herbert Spencer. Then, in 1903, he made it a three-way division: Science of Discovery, Science of Review, and Practical Science. In 1903 he characterized it as: "...arranging the results of discovery, beginning with digests, and going on to endeavor to form a philosophy of science. Such is the nature of Humboldt's Cosmos, of Comte's Philosophie positive, and of Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy. The classification of the sciences belongs to this department.'"

Classification of the sciences
Peirce opens his 1903 classification (the "Syllabus" classification) with a concise statement of method and purpose: "This classification, which aims to base itself on the principal affinities of the objects classified, is concerned not with all possible sciences, nor with so many branches of knowledge, but with sciences in their present condition, as so many businesses of groups of living men. It borrows its idea from Comte's classification; namely, the idea that one science depends upon another for fundamental principles, but does not furnish such principles to that other. It turns out that in most cases the divisions are trichotomic; the First of the three members relating to universal elements or laws, the Second arranging classes of forms and seeking to bring them under universal laws, the Third going into the utmost detail, describing individual phenomena and endeavoring to explain them. But not all the divisions are of this character..'"

Online sources:
 * CP1.180-202 (1903) http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/peirce/cl_o_sci_03.htm
 * CP1.180-202 (1903) & 1.203-283 (1902) http://www.textlog.de/4257.html
 * MS L75 (1902) http://www.cspeirce.com/menu/library/bycsp/l75/ver1/l75v1-02.htm
 * "Development of Peirce's classification of sciences - three stages: 1889, 1898, 1903" (pdf) Tommi Vehkavaara (2003) http://mtl.uta.fi/~attove/peirce_syst.PDF
 * "The outline of Peirce's classification of sciences (1902-1911)" (pdf) Tommi Vehkavaara (2001) http://mtlserver.uta.fi/~attove/peirce_systems3.PDF