The philosophy of gesture. Completing pragmatists’ incomplete revolution – MADDALENA (C-RF)

MADDALENA, Giovanni. The philosophy of gesture. Completing pragmatists’ incomplete revolution. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2015, p. 195. Resenha de: BAGGIO, Guido. Cognitio: Revista de Filosofia, São Paulo, v. 17, n. 1, p. 149-158, jan./jun. 2016.

With this well written book Maddalena proposes, in a compelling prose, a new coup d’etat similar to Kant’s “coup d’etat on philosophical mentality and reasoning” (p. 3), pushing the philosophical inquiry toward a complete synthetic pattern. The Philosophy of Gesture presents in fact a new paradigm of synthetic reasoning that considers gestures as the ordinary way in which we carry on meaning of identity through change. The word “gesture” is here taken from its Latin origin “gero” whose etymology is “I bear”, “I carry on” (but also “I produce”, “I show”, “I represent”). As Maddalena puts it, gesture is “[…] any performed act with a beginning and an end that carries a meaning […] pragmatically understood as the cluster of conceivable effects of an experience” (p. 69-70). Through a new understanding of the pragmatist tradition, the author attempts to foster “[…] a new, richer way to look at experience as a unity of theory and practice, and a profound realist view of knowledge open to metaphysics” (p. 28), that overhauls the Kantian distinctions between synthetic and analytic reasoning as well as between subject and object.

In the first chapter Maddalena puts the basis for his philosophical pragmatist revolution. In what can be considered the pars destruens of the work he exposes the critiques moved by pragmatism to the transcendental philosophy at the basis of the three Kantian key moves: 1) the grounding of Enlightment’s “[…] speculative building on a rationalist pattern of necessity composed by the hierarchical relationship between parts and whole” (p. 4-5); 2) the view of morality according to which true morals is self-consistent autonomous; and 3) the separation between sciences and humanities, mirroring that between phronesis and episteme. I shall sum up here Peirce’s critiques only, for they play the most important in the book.

Maddalena highlights Peirce’s four attacks to Kant philosophy: 1) to be nominalist, due to Kant’s affirming an unbridgeable gap between reality and reason as well as to his misconception of the continuity; 2) Kant’s preference for the unity of the logical subject (the “I think”) instead of the object, which if recognized would have led Kant to a robust realism; 3) the weakness of the “I think” as guarantee of the unity of the object because of the lack of continuity between cognitive processes and reality; and 4) the separation of the fields of Ethics, Aesthetics and Logic, as opposed to their unification.

The author thence traces the three main topics pragmatists opposed to Kant’s philosophy, which are also the philosophical tools of the pars construens of the innovative theoretical proposal. The first topic is the sign, introduced by Peirce as the tool of a new form of representation centered on the analysis of the relationship between the triad composed of the “object” of reference, the “representamen” (namely, the sign itself), and the “interpretant” (the function of interpretation). Most important is the double characteristic of “[…] hard objectivity and total interpretation” (p. 21). On the one hand there is the distinction, under the name “object”, between the dynamic object deep in the flux of reality, and the immediate object—namely, the common object of our representations. According to the author, in this distinction lies the core of Peirce’s realism. In fact, our knowledge “[…] always stems from and arrives at the dynamic object, an almost incomprehensible object which is at the beginning of our knowledge and at the end of our complete representation” (Idem).

On the other hand, immediate, dynamical, and final interpretants are “[…] those signs that permit representaments to foster and finish their representative work” (Ibidem).

Interpretation is therefore part of the sign with respect to an interpretant, and the final interpretant coincides with a “[…] habit of action.” Strictly intertwined to the sign is the topic of continuity, namely “[…] the ontological texture of experience and knowledge, according to the profound unity that defines the concept of pragmatist experience” (p. 23). The third topic is common sense, which is logically justified in its grounding on “vagueness,” namely in “[…] a state in which the object is indeterminate and would require a further determination by the utterer” (p. 26) and in which the principle of contradiction simply does not hold. “Vague,” as opposed to something that is “determinate,” “actual” and “general”, is a determination through which a “nascent” idea passes from vagueness to generality. Common sense is then the “sensitivity to vagueness” that rational beings have to have.

In the second chapter, the author faces the problematic Kantian distinction between analytic and synthetic judgments, in particular with the question about the kind of necessity featuring synthetic judgments built on intuition. Analytic judgments, in fact, are necessary by definition, for they express the principle of identity and are not subject to the principle of contradiction. On the contrary, the uniqueness of space and time “recreates with singular intuitions the schema part-whole” preserving “necessity within the same part-whole scheme that is at work in analytic judgments” (p. 37-38). Kant used therefore analytic tools to define the steps through which we arrive at a synthetic representation of reality, founding again his idea of knowledge upon an analytic pattern.

Maddalena argues that in order to overcome analyticity, a different path of reasoning is needed: namely, a concrete, synthetic way of thinking. In particular, the very possibility of synthetic judgment is provided by Peirce’s distinction between mathematical/synthetic (necessary) method and logical/analytic method, through which he tried to find out how necessary and probable inferences are composed, supplemented by “[…] a kind of synthesis in which universals are known in the particulars” (p. 41).

After a propaedeutic exposition of the status questionis to justify the innovative but incomplete pragmatists’ epistemological revolution and an explanation of the conceptual tools to be used in the new paradigm, in the third chapter Maddalena presents his theoretical proposal, exposing three new definitions for synthetic, analytic, and vague judgments, which he characterizes as follows: “A synthetic judgment (and reasoning) is a judgment (and reasoning) that recognizes identity through changes” (p. 43); “An analytic judgment (and reasoning) is a judgment (and reasoning) that loses identity through changes” (Idem); “A vague judgment (and reasoning) is a judgment (and reasoning) that is blind to identity through changes” (Ibidem). Maddalena justifies the new set of definitions arguing that they allow to understand and demonstrate sintheticity of reasoning in accordance with the fundamental hypothesis of continuity. In particular, he points out two aspects of the definitions of the new paradigm: 1) any synthetic judgment “[…] coincides with the operation we have to perform in order to get at it” (p. 46); and 2) synthesis coincides with “recognizing an identity” between two parts of a transitional experience in which judgment is the substantive part (distinguished from the transitive parts as James would hold). The process that leads to the proposition links the initial vague experience to the generalized one of the proposition through a singular action with that determinate part of experience that we call “body.” The identity is always between two experiences of the same relationship(s). Occasionally, the second experience can be formulated by a proposition, but a proposition is only one of its possible realizations that can be more or less complete as any other synthetic action (p. 47).

Maddalena goes on specifying that not just any action is synthetic, and that there are several degrees of synthesis and different kinds of actions which have to be identified through a process of inquiry at the basis of which there are three assumptions based on three pragmatists affirmation: namely, that research is in fact always tied to problem solving and the main problem to solve is the “vagueness of the experience” to determine; our inquiries aim at reaching the core of a belief which involves the establishment of a habit of action; and no proposition can be absolutely final because of its grounding in experience (which is itself never final). Following these definitions and assumptions, the main questions are then: what is “change” and how can it be studied? To reply to these questions Maddalena refers to the notion of “continuity” approached from both mathematical and logical perspectives, as Peirce did. Continuity is then “[…] a possibility, namely a model that may be realized” (p. 49). Change in continuity is interpreted accordingly “[…] as a perfect continuity of possibilities of which any actual occurrence is a realization” (Idem), it is a law (general) “[…] whose internal regularity is “an immediate connection” that we can understand as the condition of every possible realization” (Ibidem).

Change is thus not a property but rather a reality to which existent things belong.

Maddalena defines the continuum by four characteristics, already elaborated by Fernando Zalamea (2001), to whom Maddalena refers: generality, that is “[…] the law of cohesiveness among parts beyond any individual and any possibility of metrically measuring it” (p. 50); modality, “[…] the fact that a continuum is not tied only to actualities but involves also possibility and necessity” (Idem); transitivity, “[…] the internal passage between modalities” as possibility, actuality, and general necessity (Ibidem); and reflexivity, “[…] any part shall have the same properties of the whole to which it belongs” (Ibidem).

The first approach to study the change in real continuity is through the logical modalities of possibility, actuality, and necessity accounting for transition within the continuum itself. As Maddalena sums up, possibility is “the may be’s”, namely “[…] the mode of reality in which the principle of contradiction does not hold” (p.51); actuality is the existence, namely “[…] the mode of reality in which both the principle of contradiction and the excluded third hold” (p. 51-52); necessity is “[…] the mode of reality in which the principle of the excluded third does not hold, namely “[…] the state of things that “would be” true, if certain conditions happened” (p. 52). Logical modalities describe reality through the transition in determination from vagueness (that is something “particular”) to determination (“singular”) and generality (“universal”). Vagueness is, according to this approach, the main character of our beliefs and acritical inferences. Abductive inferences have often to rely upon vague characters, and vague characters are the first degree of clarity, distinguished from “determination” which is match with definition, and from “generality” which is match with the pragmatic maxim. Thus, “change” as well as “changing something” is “[…] a continuous reality in continuous transition among modalities” (p. 54), whereas our synthetic reasoning is about recognizing identity through change.

The second approach to “change” is the existential graphs. It is important to note that according to Peirce, and to the synthetic way of reasoning, “working” is the necessary and sufficient condition of reality. And since in mathematics we deal with universals in particulars, “doing mathematics” through scribing graphs and diagrams, that is to perform “mathematical gestures” through which imagining hypothesis and drawing from them necessary conclusions, means already dealing with the reality of universals. Generally speaking, existential graphs are the basic iconic level of relationship with the dynamic reality and it is accordingly the original “evidence” of change through continuity for their being moving pictures of thought which represent “[…] the creation of explanatory conjectures” (p. 56). The basic idea is that the conclusion of a synthetic reasoning is perceived in all its generality, and that the existential graphs are synthetically conveying universals into singulars.

The generalization is the analytic result of the diagrams which are “[…] the synthetic happening of generals” (p. 57). The process of “re-cognizing” the identity through changes is part of this happening, and coincides with the drawing of the line which is the acceptance of the original identity of two points that are distant but the same.

Identity therefore means no longer A=A, but a non-purely-symbolizable iconic identity passing from A to B. This implies a switch to scribing the line of identity upon a multidimensional continuum, transforming the identity in a teridentity, which is a line representing two relations of co-identity. Identity is thence “[…] the continuity of possibilities of an individual considered to be a changing object in its becoming” (p. 61). Now, according to Maddalena, who follows in this Peirce, the line of teridentity is a “perfect continuum” along with the multidimensional continuum of assertion. Identity means identity of an aspect of an individual, which is a “[…] variety of presentation and representation” (MS 300:46-47), whose time and space are just two of the possibilities. A line of identity is a “perfect sign” all parts of which “[…] are possibilities that might be realized according to a general law” (p.

65), becoming more and more determinate (and thus, in the long run, necessary) within the continuum in which they are inscribed. What has to be noted is that the iconic level of teridentity is the most important for it shows the Forms and Feelings of the synthesis of the elements of thought as a continuum of dots. And the identity seen under two aspects “[…] consists merely in the continuity of being passing from one apparition to another” (CP 4.448).

In the fourth chapter the notion of “complete gesture” is introduced. A gesture is, as said at the beginning of this review, a performed act with a beginning and an end that carries a meaning pragmatically understood. Maddalena specifies that “gesture” has to be considered in a much broader than as a mere bodily articulation, that is as “[…] a completion of reasoning and communication in which words can cooperate” (p. 171n). In such completion, which is the performing of the synthetic reasoning and the “[…] original form of comprehension/communication” (p. 75) from which any other form can be derived, we transform our vague comprehension into a habit of action. He distinguishes between complete (namely perfect) and incomplete gestures, for not just any gesture is synthetic but only those respecting the characters of evidence, generalization, continuity, and “[…] an equal blending of kinds of signs” as well as of phenomena (p. 70). From a semiotic perspective a complete gesture has to have a general meaning so as to be a general law for replicas (symbol); actual (index) when indicates singular object; expressing different possibilities of forms and feelings (icon). These semiotic characters of gesture need to be reflected in the phenomenological relations of firstness, namely a pure idea or a pure feeling, secondness (a physical act involving reactions of two objects or subjects), and thirdness (generality). Examples of complete gestures are liturgies, rites, artistic performances and hypothesizing experiments. What Maddalena wants to point out here is the internal telos that the phenomenological and semiotic paths reveal (at pain of making continuity unintelligible), namely “[…] the tendency to generalize that every gesture requires as such for the dynamic of its elements (thirdness and symbols)” (p. 73). A singular person who performs a singular act is embodying a general rule according to certain interpretation, creating a “necessary” habit of action which will be fostered in a re-performance involving “a replica of the feelings” (p. 80). The gesture becomes actual only insomuch as a person is actualizing it. That singular action modifies the generality proposing new habits (or new ways of old habits). Generalization is granted by the possibility that a complete gesture is “accomplished by many”.

The fifth chapter titled “Gestures and Creativity” specifies the kind of function the complete gestures have in our knowledge. Synthetic reasoning is always a creative form of reasoning, however the creative synthetic blending of semiotic elements has some necessary conditions, first of all, a “sub-creation”, namely an author who puts the complete gesture into existence. The second element is “assent” which coincides with the interpretant, namely “[…] the outcome of the sign in a determination of the interpreter’s mind (including all non-human minds)” (p. 96). Assent is thence “[…] the condition through which our complete gesture becomes operatively meaningful” (Idem). The third element is the “normative appeal”, namely the ethical dimension involved in assent. A hypothesis might be possible but not plausible, that is not convenient to realize because it lies outside the range of effective possibility. If so, then the ethical statement is “[…] something that has to deal with the effective world” (p. 98). The voluntary act at the basis of ethics judgment is related to the knowledge of the end of the act. This knowledge, however, has not to be found within ethics but rather in aesthetics: it must be an admirable ideal “[…] into which our complete gestures, like our analytic reasoning, have to fit and with which they cooperate to propose, to enhance, and to foster” (p. 100). The ultimate immutable aim is an aim consistent with human freedom and “concrete reasonableness”, namely the human reason in its “embodiment”. What Maddalena foresees in the apex of Peirce’s doctrine of “embodiment” is what a complete synthetic pattern would be, namely the emerging of concrete reasonableness as the order that any sort of reality must have to be understood. This means, pragmatically, a progressive approach to a final recognition, to the “truth” understood as the result of inquiry in the long run. Now, the problem is that Peirce did not explain what concrete reasonableness consists in. However, as Maddalena argues in the final chapter, even if pragmatists see ethics as normative, they also understand this normativity as linked to a posteriori knowledge. And knowledge is always tied up with complete gestures (p. 138).

In the sixth and seventh chapters Maddalena tries to derive solutions to such classic theoretical topics as personal identity and artistic creativity from the complete synthetic pattern and gesture. The first characteristic of the recognition of identity is that multidimensional continuum and the line of identity expressed in the existential graphs are lodged within the person’s experience. To find out the possibility to connect one complete gesture to another Maddalena refers to Auerbach’s notion of “figurality” derived from Latin “figura”, namely “[…] something real and historical which announces something else that is also real and historical” (p. 114). Working with the idea of a “[…] recognition of identity through changes” we can see the figure as the form of the object at an iconic level and its actualization at an indexical level (examples of the latter level are proper names and pronouns). Figurality among complete gestures, that is not a mere similarity between two figures, seems to describe what happens with memory, and establishes also a path of future realization, which will be another figure in our ongoing process.

The last chapter is dedicated to tackle the Kantian legacy regarding the conception of morality. Maddalena refers again to vagueness and common sense, arguing that common sense is the kind of reality that we receive or in which we are immersed, it is applied to fundamental ways of thinking and enters in any “reconstruction” of reality: common sense is our first acknowledgment of experience, it is our inherited morality which is vague, although its vagueness is a proof of its importance and reality. Now, as synthetic gestures transform themselves into habits of actions, giving rise to new interpretations, tradition and reconstruction are two poles of the same developing whole. As Maddalena argues, “[…] any action, bad action included, can be moral insofar as it embodies its vague initial idea and its general final ideal” (p. 145). Thence, if meaning is increased and modified by complete gestures, can general aims change during the process of performing gestures? The problem concerns the subject of the ethical judgment. To respond to this question Maddalena indicates in the “rational instinct” the esthetical-ethical-logical function of the faculty of judgment at the core of the complete gesture. However he does not succeed to link the function of judgment to an ontological self, because, as he argues, the question about the ontological self “[…] goes beyond the limit of the complete gesture tool and the model of reasoning based on it” (p. 149).

With The Philosophy of Gesture Maddalena depicts an innovative epistemic tool for our everyday reasoning, opening a whole new horizon of research in various fields, from theoretical philosophy to ethics, from psychology to the social sciences.

The potentialities are really vast: think for example of the interesting application of this tool to the hypothesis about the ways in which individuals develop their “choice process” in various fields of conduct (e.g., politics, economics, laws, ethics, etc.).

There are, however, some critical comments that I hope would be productive to foster the debate about the new paradigm proposed. First of all, Maddalena refers to Dewey and Mead as the pragmatists who used the notion of gesture before him.

It is however questionable to refer to those authors for they did not use the word “gesture” in the same way Maddalena does in his book. According to Mead gestures are truncated acts representing in their original forms the first overt phases in social acts that stimulate certain response. The function of gesture is then the mutual adjustment of changing social response to changing social stimulation. On the contrary, the gesture in Maddalena’s proposal assumes a more complex function, namely that of representing a synthetic reasoning which creates new habits. What is partially common to the two different perspectives is the social function that gestures have in the changing evolution of dispositions to act at the basis of the changing of complex habits. However, in my opinion it would be better to distinguish more clearly the word “gesture” that Maddalena uses from Mead’s and Dewey’s “gesture” to avoid misunderstandings and false comparisons.

There are also some doubts that could be raised about the way in which, in the third chapter of his book, Maddalena refers to the iconic level of teridentity as the level that shows the Forms and Feelings of the synthesis of elements of thought consisting merely in the continuity of being passing from one apparition to another. One of such doubts being that to refer to representation and presentation as “aspects”, and to different aspects as two “apparitions” reintroduce in the paradigm Kantian distinction between phenomenon and noumenon. As Maddalena highlights, there is a permanence of something, “[…] a part of experience lingers while its representation evolves” (p. 66). However, in speaking about reality as something changing in aspects only, Maddalena seems to conflate the phenomenon/noumenon distinction with the substantive/transitive distinction.

The second doubt is strictly related to the first and concerns the reference to the “Forms of the synthesis” and to the analytic composition of gesture synthesis. In my opinion, in referring to such forms Maddalena revokes through singular gestures (instead of Kantian intuitions) the schema part/whole, preserving necessity within the same part/whole scheme that is at work in analytic judgments, hence referring again to analyticity. Moreover, regarding the changing of aspects, the continuity of being as “passing from one apparition to another” has to be considered as the passage from a discrete to another discrete, which is possible to define only analytically. To sum up, it seems to me that as Kant uses analytic tools to define the steps through which we arrive to a synthetic representation of reality, Maddalena uses analytic tools to expose the steps through which we recognize a synthetic reasoning. So, if the gesture is the synthetic performance of continuity, the latter can be known only a posteriori through an analytic process. Even if we accept synthetic reasoning through the tool of gesture as the core of new knowing processes, we need analyticity to re-cognize and comprehend that gesture as synthetic reasoning.

In other words, in exposing and describing the elements that compose the synthetic reasoning expressed through logical modalities and mathematical gesture Maddalena is repeating the same analytic process Kant sketched in his Critique of Pure Reason. We therefore witness a reconstruction of both the analytic/synthetic and phenomenon/noumenon distinctions as two essential parts of the experience processes.

It is possible to partially respond to these doubts by arguing that the analysis of elements composing the synthetic reasoning is always a posteriori, differently from Kant’s affirmation that analytic judgments are always a priori. And as there is no primum cognitum—as Peirce stated in the context of his criticism of intuition— we have to conclude that synthetic and analytic reasoning are two sides of the same process: namely, experience. Maddalena’s pragmatist proposal aims for the unity of experience, as it “[…] stems from experience and aims to another more general and embodied experience” (p. 67). This approach shows that gestures as “[…] the embodied way to represent or recognize identity are different from the two main representations of identity: identity as permanence of attributes and identity as dialectic” (p. 113). Moreover, Maddalena argues about the clarity of knowledge that to know “[…] something in a vague way […] is the beginning of any definition and any gesture” (p. 82). This means that our reasoning is like a “swinging pendulum”, with the extreme syntheticity of complete gesture on the one side, and the extreme analysis of formal logic on the other. Vague reasoning is “[…] an intermediate kind of reasoning through which we pass from one extreme to the other” (p. 83). However, even if in Maddalena’s view analiticity is always a posteriori, in my opinion the question remains and needs further analysis.

A last doubt concerns the problem of the nature of the subject of ethical judgment. Even though Maddalena refers to “rational instinct” as the estheticalethical- logical function of the faculty of judgment at the core of the complete gesture, the question with the ontological self is here related to that of personal identity. And even though Maddalena admits that the question “[…] goes beyond the limit of the complete gesture tool and the model of reasoning based on it” (p.

149), it remains an open question which according to me calls for an idea of the subject that cannot be considered only as function, for otherwise we fall back into the distinction between phenomenon and noumenon. I think that gesture, by being related to the way reasoning functions, can indeed offer the solution. Interpreting the final aim as reasonableness calls out the postulation of a final aim of Nature (similar to what Kant did in the Critique of the Power of Judgment) in which the subject plays a crucial part. Here a metaphysical background is called for to make the aesthetic the first normative science. However, to presuppose a metaphysical background implies also to partially define the subject legitimated to interpret a gesture as complete or incomplete and to understand the admirableness of “the ultimate aim” through a “transcendental” scheme. However, who or what can be legitimated as the final interpretant of a plausible gesture? Is it really possible to define a “normative” schema through which determine the plausibility of gesture, even a posteriori? Peirce’s and Maddalena’s referring to Summum Bonum is paradigmatic to the response they give. From their perspective any performed gesture would be seen at the end, from the “ultimate aim’s” perspective, namely the “admirable ideal” as a sign of a final cosmological order, in which human reasonableness will be totally “unfolded”. The problem to face with is, however: how can free will act as the source of singular creative synthetic reasoning in this framework? Have we to judge it only a posteriori, which is analytically? I think that a possible furthering of inquiries in the new theoretical paradigm proposed by Maddalena would need to pay attention to the nature of synthetic reflective judgment Kant tackles in his third Critique. In particular it would help to develop Peirce’s aesthetics, whose comments are brief and inconsistent (a first attempt has been made by Atkins 2008 in Cognitio). I think it would be a good starting point to reach a new definition of a broader judgment than the logical judgment, one involving the relationship of a gesture to the realm of existence, which would help to understand whether a particular complete gesture is worthwhile. Strictly related to this new way of considering judgment would be a renewed attention to the Kantian’s sensus communis, which would help thinking the distinction between synthetic and analytic in new light. Obviously, this new attention would call for a rejection of the Kantian confinement of common sense to aesthetic judgments and a broader attention to what Kant called sensus communis logicus, namely the sense affecting the judgments of the intellect. Common sense as the a priori principle of the possibility of judgment on experience in general is also closely linked to the notion of finality, which in Kant assumes the meaning of a “purpose of nature”, but could also be declined pragmatistically in the teleological perspective of synthetic gestures.

References

ATKINS, R. K. The pleasure of goodness: Peircean aesthetics in light of Kant’s Critique of the Power of Judgment. In: Cognitio: revista de filosofia. São Paulo, v. 9, n. 1, p. 13-25, 2008.

ZALAMEA, F. El continuo Peirceano. Facultad de Ciencias, Bogotà: Universidad Nacional de Colombia. 2001.

Guido Baggio – Pontifical Salesian University Roma Tre University. [email protected]

Acessar publicação original

Charles S. Peirce: Claves para una ética pragmaticista – BOERO (C-RF)

BOERO, Hedy. Charles S. Peirce: Claves para una ética pragmaticista. Pamplona: Eunsa, 2014, 316 p. Cognitio – Revista de Filosofia, São Paulo, v. 16, n. 1, p. 179-184, jan./jun. 2015.

Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914) combined his activity as a scientist with a deep interest in logic and philosophy. Penetrating questions about knowledge and human action were always present in his thought. As Hedy Boero shows in this book, he was particularly concerned with making the nature of his scientific activity more clear and transparent. Peirce was always interested in explaining the mechanisms that lead human beings to produce new knowledge. In 1892, he wrote that one of the most interesting questions is how things grow, not only in each division of science but also in the development of art (MS 1277). That question refers not only to the true nature of knowledge, but also to the ultimate purpose of scientific endeavor, which in the end takes on ethical overtones, since Peirce’s answer to that question is precisely a participation in creative activity: the cooperation of human beings in the manifestation and growth of reason as such.

That end will, for Peirce, become the ideal for the conduct of all people, which shows that ethics was not something far from his thoughts. On the contrary, ethical considerations, understood in a broad sense as the pursuit of the good life—that is, the approach to the summum bonum—formed a part of Peirce’s reflections on an overall vision for the growth of human beings, and for discovering and explaining the universe. For Peirce, human experience situates itself within a broader perspective of reasonableness.

While ethics has not aroused much interest among Peirce scholars until now, it is, as Hedy Boero shows, more than just a side issue in Peirce’s thought. His reflections on that science “extended throughout practically his entire life, from the philosophical exercises of a young student at Harvard, up to the solid arguments of a mature man who toiled in the immense task of presenting to the world the central ideas of his vast philosophical system” (p. 12). In this book, with the help of the author, who guides us with great skill, we accompany Peirce through the main stages in the development of the ethical issues he studied.

The book is organized into four chapters, which, thanks to a chronological, comprehensive approach—including a judicious selection and analysis of texts— guide us in experiencing firsthand Peirce’s doubts and advances in ethical reflection.

Through a detailed analysis of the sources, moral issues are carefully examined, together with the difficulties that Peirce faced and the findings that allowed him to provide solutions to certain problems. Our idea of a Peircean ethics advances step by step, and we come to see how it came to be. Boero shows how, in Peirce, ethics is not something over and done with, completed and fossilized. Rather, it is a living and growing process, something which, for Peirce, must characterize any science.

In Boero’s first chapter, which contains texts dated between 1857 and 1892, two initial, basic issues are considered: what do we mean when we speak of ethics and morality, and when did Peirce’s interest in ethical issues arise? In this regard, the author presents biographical and textual evidence that allows her to situate the beginning of Peirce’s work in ethics in the years 1882-1883. In particular, the entries on ethics and morality that Peirce prepared for the Century Dictionary are especially relevant.

The second chapter, which covers the period between 1892 and 1898, deals with the first moral issue that, for Peirce, deserved careful development: the relationship that may exist between ethics and scientific research. As a scientist who seeks to clarify the nature of his task, Peirce tries to answer the question of whether there is a morality that is intrinsic to scientific activity and, if it exists, what it is.

Another question is whether morality can influence science and whether science can have any influence on morality. In this chapter the author analyzes a littleknown text of Peirce that contains interesting reflections: the review of the book by Arabella Buckley, Moral Teachings of Science (CN 1.155-157; W 8.345-348, 1892); other texts examined are the manuscript “Lessons from the History of Science” (CP 1.43-125, c.1896) and the first of the Cambridge Lectures, “Philosophy and the Conduct of Life” (MS 435-437; CP 1.616-677, 1898).

In the third chapter, which focuses on the years 1901 and 1902—especially productive for Peirce—the author analyzes those texts that began to lay the foundations for an ethical doctrine that Peirce would later—beginning in 1903— develop with much more clarity and strength than in his earlier works. It is during these years that Peirce recognized ethics to be a philosophical or theoretical science and distinguished it from a practical study or art. Selected texts in this chapter include “On the Logic of Drawing History from Ancient Documents, Especially from Testimonies” (CP 7.164-255; EP 2.75-114, 1901), the review of the book of Sidney Mezes, Ethics: Descriptive and Explanatory (CN 3.50-53, 1901), and three texts from 1902 belonging to a book that Peirce had planned, Minute Logic: “On Science and Natural Classes” (MS 427; EP 2.115-132; CP 1.203-283, 1902), “Why Study Logic” (MS 428; CP 2.119-202, 1902) and “Ethics” (MS 432-434; CP 1.575-584, 1902).

The fourth chapter, the longest one, covers Peirce’s writings from 1903 until 1911, that is, the period of maturity of his thought which Max Fisch called “Arisbe,” in reference to the name of the house in Milford where Peirce and his wife lived during those years. This period of Peirce’s life was philosophically the most productive, although it was marked by poverty and disease. During those years, faithful to his habit of correcting, rewriting and revising his thought again and again, Peirce constantly returns to subjects previously treated, introducing twists and shedding new light on them. At this final stage, Peirce reached intellectual maturity, fully developed his theory of signs and produced many of his theories about metaphysics. The reformulation of pragmatism occupied a central place during those years, since Peirce wanted to carefully distinguish his own doctrines from other versions, such as the theories of William James and F.C.S. Schiller.

Peirce changed the name of “pragmatism” to “pragmaticism,” and it can be said that the development of his ethical thought was not unrelated to the task of redefining pragmatism itself. Quite the contrary: “ethics cannot be understood any more without its relation to pragmaticism, and pragmaticism necessarily requires ethics as essential for its testing or demonstration” (p. 19). In those final years ethics would be definitively established as a normative science, and the concepts of self-control and final causality, which provide a new understanding of the notions of end and purpose, will appear as essential. The last section of the book attempts to lay out in a more systematic way the keys to a pragmaticist ethics.

The writings selected in this last chapter are three of the Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism of 1903 (CP 5.14-40, 5.93-119, 5.120-150, EP 2.133-144, 2.179-195, 2.196-207), one of the Lowell Lectures, “What Makes a Sound Reasoning” (CP 1.591-615, EP 2.242-257, 1903), and the texts “What Pragmatism Is” (CP 5.411-437, EP 2.331-345, 1905), “Issues of Pragmaticism” (CP 5.438-463, EP 2.346-359, 1905), “The Basis of Pragmaticism in the Normative Sciences” (EP 2.371-397, 1906), and “A Sketch of Logical Critics” (EP 2.451-462, 1911).

As this book demonstrates quite rightly, the true nature of pragmatism can’t be understood without the doctrine of the normative sciences, particularly of ethics, while at the same time ethics is enriched in the effort to define pragmatism, thereby constituting a feedback loop that greatly enriches both sides.

On the one hand, in his last years pragmatism became for Peirce a maxim according to which the only possible meaning of something is found in those dispositions that it originates, in what we are deliberately prepared to do. As Peirce himself stated in a manuscript dating from c.1907, pragmatism is built on the principle that the beliefs of human beings are the propositions which they will find satisfactory to act upon (MS 296). The pragmatic maxim thus becomes a maxim of behavior. That something has meaning entails being prepared to deliberately adopt a proposition as a guide for action. In 1903, speaking of the normative sciences, Peirce says that he is on the trail of the secret of pragmatism (CP 5.130), because to clarify the pragmatic maxim we must find out what is logically good, and to find out what is logically good we must have a clear understanding of the nature of the ultimate end, of that end, admirable in itself, according to which we should think and act. What we think is interpreted in terms of what we are prepared to do, and what we are prepared to do in terms of what we are prepared to admire.

That secret of pragmatism, as Hedy Boero rightly points out, is nothing other than self-control, which consists in acting according to an admirable ideal. Rational self-control is closely linked to the idea of end, of an ideal, because, as Peirce claims, when we say that the meaning of something is how we would act, it is plain that this “how” cannot refer to the description of the mechanical motions that it might cause, but rather to a description of the action as having this or that aim (CP 5.135); it does not refer to individual reactions but to how those reactions contribute to the development and pursuit of a purpose. And so, to properly understand pragmatism, we must ask what the ultimate aim is, that is, the end that can be pursued over an indefinitely prolonged course of action. In short, to be rational and to act according to pragmatism, that is, to consider the consequences so as to clarify the meaning of things, means taking into account deliberate conduct; it means being subject to selfcontrol, and acting in accordance with a purpose that an ultimate end illuminates.

Now, focusing on the other direction of that feedback existing between ethics and pragmatism, the author explains that ethical notions are also enriched by the mature Peirce’s vision of pragmatism. In particular, the notion of final cause enables a much more solid and harmonious link to develop between the normative sciences; the notion of consciousness becomes the notion of criticism, and the doctrine of categories allows for each one of the normative sciences to be defined more precisely.

Hedy Boero shows that there is an ethics that can quite properly be called, by its association with key aspects of pragmaticism, “pragmaticist ethics.” The notions of normative science, self-control and end are the three foundations on which this ethics is to be based. Despite initial doubts, Peirce clearly established ethics as a normative science, one that concerns self-control in the field of action, and which stands as the science that studies the conformity of deliberate action with the end.

It corresponds to aesthetics, the first normative science and foundation of logic and ethics, to tell us what that ultimate end is, that is, what is admirable in itself.

The notion of self-control involves the notion of end, insofar as it presupposes the capacity to review our own actions and to make them approach the ideal.

Therefore, Peircean ethics is built on reason, which, having a critical and teleological character, allows us to carry out deliberate action. Reason helps us to reflect on our actions and guide our future, thinking first about the nature of the ideal, considering the conceivable consequences, and helping to review our actions and to judge and form a resolution for the future. As Boero has noted, all self-controlled action involves, first, being ordered to an end, and second, being clearly forwardlooking, since it allows a critical analysis of one’s own conduct, a modification of planned acts and the acquisition of certain habits in light of the consequences for the future action. All converges in the notion of ultimate end, of the ideal that is, for Peirce, none other than making the world more and more reasonable, embodying reasonableness in concrete manifestations—in concrete actions, in the case of ethics.

Conformity to the ideal of Reasonableness thus becomes one of the most important elements of the Peircean notion of ethics.

Boero’s book is an essential contribution to Peirce studies. She deals with a subject that until now might have seemed minor, but, as is shown in her book, it turns out to be fundamental to the correct understanding of pragmatism. She powerfully illuminates the mutual enrichment of ethics and pragmatism. While in the end one might miss a more systematic approach—the analysis of texts can sometimes deprive us of a more global vision—the chronological approach is always wise when discussing any aspect of Peirce’s thought. Further, Boero’s comprehensive approach means that, at the end of the book, Peirce’s ethics appear as a complete system that sustains itself, as well as being related to other fundamental aspects of his thought.

The author proves that ethics has been present in Peirce’s writings throughout his entire life, sometimes more deeply and sometimes less. It becomes much more important starting at the turn of the century, when Peirce undergoes an evolution that brings aesthetics and ethics decisively within his purview. Peirce’s ethics, far from being a moral doctrine, is a theoretical science, which does not speak of specific practical actions but of the general conditions under which phenomena must relate to ends. According to Peirce’s pragmaticism, the normative sciences deal with conceivable action, as opposed to practical action. We must not expect from the normative sciences any practical advice, specific indications or discoveries of new techniques or forms of action. These sciences are not related to real and specific occurrences, with particular phenomena, nor are they limited to a good/bad dualism that would be appropriate for a practical science.

What makes ethics a normative science is that it studies what should be, that is, the conditions to be fulfilled in order that actions should conform to the ultimate end. The normative sciences are theoretical and “positive”: they are the most purely theoretical sciences amongst all purely theoretical sciences (CP 1.281, c.1902). Only by affirming positive and categorical truth can they demonstrate what they call good. Once again, Peirce does not provide recipes or simple answers, but he makes us wonder and reflect on deep questions, in this case about the elements present in all human action, and about the ultimate goal to which our lives should be directed.

As a result, this book will be of interest to any Peircean scholar, but also to all those interested in the big questions about human life and the deepest questions of ethics.

Sara Barrena – Grupo de Estudios Peirceanos Universidad de Navarra – España: E-mail: [email protected]

Acessar publicação original

The Politics of Survival: Peirce, Affectivity, and Social Criticism – TROUT (C-RF)

TROUT, Lara. The Politics of Survival: Peirce, Affectivity, and Social Criticism. New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. 362 p. Cognitio – Revista de Filosofia, São Paulo, v. 12, n. 1, p. 157-165, jan/jun. 2011.

Several years ago, at a meeting of the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, Guatemalan philosopher Moris Polanco told me that even though he was interested in the thought of all the American pragmatists, he found most interesting the work of John Dewey because of its direct relevance to the sociopolitical questions that are most pressing in Latin America. Though I agreed with the importance of Dewey’s thought to such questions, it seemed to me that Peirce’s thought should not be underestimated in this regard. Even if Peirce did not write much explicitly about sociopolitical issues, and even if Peirce scholarship tended to neglect the potential sociopolitical relevance of his thought, it appeared to me that Peirce’s systematic thought could be fruitfully developed in that direction. Lara Trout’s The Politics of Survival is an outstanding work that develops Peirce’s thought precisely by showing its cogency to philosophical questions of social justice. In this sense, Trout’s seminal contribution should prove important to pragmatist scholars interested in social and political philosophy in Latin America and elsewhere.

Trout interprets and deploys Peirce’s philosophy, first, to explain how it can help us to understand the origins and workings of various forms of social oppression and discrimination and, second, to suggest ways in which such oppression and discrimination may be individually and socially overcome. In terms of social justice, Trout is specifically concerned with showing how nonconscious racism and, to a lesser extent, sexism arise and operate in the United States of America (USA). In other words, she is interested in studying how persons belonging to hegemonic groups, especially white people, in the U.S.A. may act on the basis of discriminatory beliefs to cause social injustice, even in cases when they are well-meaning and unaware of their own biases and prejudices. In the course of studying racism and sexism as specific forms of social injustice, Trout develops a general interpretation of Peirce’s philosophy that, I suggest, may be applied fruitfully to the analysis of other forms of sociopolitical injustice in diverse cultural contexts.

Trout introduces her argument by specifying the main premise of her work, namely, the compatibility between the affective dimensions of Peirce’s philosophy and social criticism. By “social criticism” she means “any type of critique, such as feminism and race theory […], that acknowledges the reality of oppression, as well as the theoretical and practical mechanisms by which oppression can be perpetuated.

I understand social justice to be the ultimate goal of social criticism.” (p. 2). Trout begins to show the compatibility between Peirce’s philosophy and social criticism by emphasizing that social justice – in the form of inclusivity of all reasonable inquirers and their perspectives in the community – is a necessary condition for the Peircean practice of science and that such justice is promoted by agapism and Critical Common-sensism: Taking as its ideal an infinitely inclusive community of inquiry, Peircean science requires social justice. As ideally practiced, it also demonstrates agapic love, whereby it embraces new ideas as sources for on-going growth and self-critique, even and especially when these ideas challenge existing beliefs. It follows, therefore, that the Peircean community of inquiry eschews exclusionary prejudice.

Moreover, Peirce’s epistemological doctrine of Critical Common-sensism (CCS) calls humans to expand self-control over their common-sense beliefs and provides conceptual tools to address gaps that exist between his communal ideal and the concrete realities of heterosexism, racism, sexism, etc., which undermine actual inquiry and growth in flesh-and-blood communities. (p. 3).

Expounding this intricate and mutually supportive relationship between science, agapic love, and Critical Common-sensism in Peirce’s philosophy and developing its implications for social justice becomes the focus of Trout’s analysis throughout the book.

The starting point of her argument is the recognition that human beings begin life as children – uniquely embodied beings immersed in a social, cultural, political, and natural environing reality – and that they can internalize habits and beliefs nonconsciously – that is, without conscious awareness – before they are able to criticize them. This is how nonconscious racism may arise among members of hegemonic groups such as whites, males, or heterosexuals for example. Without criticism of their own habits and their sources, these people tend to understand their own privileges as social norms (p. 4-6). In order to substantiate this view, Trout will offer a proactive reading of Peirce’s texts that foregrounds post-Darwinian embodiment themes and compatibilities with social criticism in his work.

Her definition of “affectivity” in fact highlights the post-Darwinian aspects of Peirce’s philosophy: By “affectivity” I mean the on-going body-minded communication between the human organism and its individual, social, and external environments, for the promotion of survival and growth. This communication is shaped by biological, individual, semiotic, social, and other factors. My treatment of Peircean affectivity includes feelings, emotion, instinct, interest, sympathy, and agapic love, as well as belief, doubt, and habit. (p. 9).

This definition involves Peirce’s understanding of the human person as an animal organism and the corresponding view of cognition and habit-taking as embodied and therefore affective.

Trout introduces five contributions of Peirce’s philosophy to social criticism.

First, Peirce’s phenomenology provides us with conceptual tools to understand how sociopolitical factors are constitutive of a person’s experience (p. 12). Second, his account of human cognition supports the social-critical position that no one can achieve a detached, disembodied, “god’s eye” view of the world (p. 12-13). Third, Peirce articulates the nonconscious influence that our habits can have on our reasoning processes (p. 13). Fourth, Peirce’s arguments to propose that all human beings have the reasoning and intellectual capacities required to grasp regularities in their environments and to form their own aims for conduct goes against the prevalent racist and sexist biases in the Western philosophical cannon regarding who is rational, intelligent, or objective (p. 14). Fifth, Peirce’s evolutionary conception of reason propounds that our belief-habits grow in complexity, and this growth can be steered towards a better understanding of social critical issues (p. 14). In turn, Trout points out that social criticism can make a significant contribution to Peirce’s work by identifying sociopolitical blind spots – nonconscious exclusionary habits through which non-hegemonic groups are oppressed – and by extending its scope: “Social criticism helps Peirce’s philosophy extend its reach by extending its inclusive ideals beyond the borders of an imagination limited by hegemonic viewpoints that are circumscribed by whiteness, maleness, economical security, heterosexuality, and so on” (p. 15).

Throughout the five chapters that follow this introduction, Trout develops these themes thoughtfully and convincingly. She is always careful to ground her assertions in Peirce’s own texts, sometimes by highlighting what Peirce argued explicitly and sometimes by developing his views in ways suggested by and compatible with his own writings.

In chapter one, entitled “Peircean Affectivity,” Trout lays the theoretical groundwork for her analysis of the sources and ways of functioning of nonconscious racism in the U.S.A. She begins by stating Peirce’s view of the human individual: “Peirce viewed the individual human organism as a body-minded, social animal who interacts semiotically with the world outside of her. He had little patience for the Cartesian portrayal of the individual as a disembodied, solipsistic knower with immediate epistemic access to truth.” (p. 25). She restates the definition of affectivity quoted above, and then she proceeds to describe the process of habit-taking, which is one of the processes that promotes organic survival and growth, in affective terms: “Human habit-taking is an affective venture, whereby individuals and groups communicate with their various environments in order to successfully cope and grow, without undue interruptions from environmental factors outside their control.” (p. 27).

Habit-taking is thus an embodied process – it is a way in which body-minded human organisms transact with their environments. Habits are embodied. In particular, habits as body-minded patterns of behavior are embodied as “patterns of nerve-firings” or as “nervous associations” as Peirce sometimes calls them (p. 27).

With this general background laid out, Trout then announces her own topic for inquiry: “The subtle and often unnoticed influences on human belief-habits that stem from two interrelated sources, the unique embodiment of each person and socialshaping.” (p. 29). Trout develops carefully the post-Darwinian theme of embodiment in Peirce’s philosophy and, notably, brings it into dialogue with the contemporary work of neuroscientist Antonio Damasio. For the sake of brevity, however, I will emphasize her treatment of how our habits may be shaped socially. In particular, I will discuss two concepts introduced by Trout, namely, “socio-political secondness” (p. 57-60) and “socialized instinctive beliefs” (p. 63-68).

Regarding the first concept, Trout presents two interrelated definitions. First she defines “social secondness” as “socially dictated environmental resistance” (p. 58).

This is environmental resistance due to “social conventions that are largely outside of one’s control” (p. 58). This definition is based on the category of experience that involves reaction and resistance, and that is usually associated with physical or biological environmental resistance but need not be circumscribed that way, even for Peirce. Second, she defines “socio-political secondness” as “social secondness that is not encountered equally by all members of society […] [but rather] involves constraint that is directed at non-hegemonic groups. It includes prejudice and discrimination based on factors such as economic class, race, sex, sexuality, and so on.” (p. 58).

Trout deploys this concept to explain how Euro-American whites may develop habits of “false universalization” that lead them to deny the reality of racism in the United States. The example is illuminating: People who are Euro American, born and raised in mainstream United States, are often not familiar with the socio-political secondness based on race. This is because mainstream U.S. society remains socio-politically structured to support and promote whiteness. Thus whites often experience an absence of socio-political secondness. This absence promotes habits of false universalization, whereby a Euro American experience – where race is not an obstacle – is conceptualized as the norm, both in mainstream U.S. society and in the belief-habits of white people.

False universalization occurs when a person or group assumes their experience is representative for all of humanity. When false universalization of a Euro American experience occurs, it can be difficult for whites to take seriously the testimony of people of color who report on the socio-political secondness they experience based on their race. Yet to deny the latter’s input regarding racism perpetuates a hegemonic norm that blocks inquiry and obstructs societal growth. (p. 59-60).

I suggest that this concept of “socio-political secondness” is key to be able to extend the range of application of Peirce’s philosophy to social and political problems related to systematic, societal prejudice based on race, sex, sexual orientation, economic class, and so on. It in fact provides a germane way to make Peircean analysis evidently and explicitly relevant to such problems in Latin America, for example.

When people of a specific ethnic or economic background are denied opportunities for education or employment due to social norms or even systematic policies they are experiencing “socio-political secondness”. Peirce’s philosophy provides the conceptual architectonics to be able to analyze in detail how such resistances arise and operate. In turn, understanding those ways of operating is necessary in order to be able to eliminate such resistances with the help of effective, conscious self-control and Critical Common-sensism.

The importance of self-control and Critical Common-sensism to constrain and guide the operation of socially generated habits is evident from Trout’s treatment of the second theme mentioned above, namely, “socialized instinctive beliefs”. She expounds Peirce’s use of the term “instinct” which “can be broadly construed to reflect both in-born habits, as well as socialized ones” (p. 63). Instincts are belief-habits that may be either naturally in-born or socially acquired, especially in childhood.

Trout then shows how a discussion of socialized belief-habits is implicit in Peirce’s discussion of the method of authority in “The Fixation of Belief”. Taking her cue directly from Peirce, Trout proposes the following: “Extrapolating socio-politically, I include in the category of ‘socialized instinctive beliefs’ ideas about race, sex, and other socio-political classifications. Socialized instinctive beliefs are included in one’s common-sense or background beliefs.” (p. 65). As a result, Instinctive beliefs not only take on common-sense certainty, they also often function non-consciously, that is, without one’s conscious awareness […] [I]instinctive beliefs promoting racism, sexism, and other social ills can function without the conscious awareness of those acting on them. At the same time, instinctive beliefs – at least in some cases – can be raised to conscious attention and scrutiny, which is an exercise of self-control undertaken by Critical Common-sensists. (p. 65-66).

This is why Critical Common-sensism, which brings logical self-control to bear on background instinctive beliefs, is crucial for the detection and elimination of pernicious social habits of prejudice and exclusion. This conclusion presupposes Trout’s discussion of “self-control” (p. 36-37) and the conditions of sympathy and agapic love for the detection of prejudice and elimination of habit to be possible through self-control (p. 37-38). Trout’s key insight is that self-control is both purposeful and inhibitory. Self-control enables people to have loving purposes that promote social justice. Sympathy and agape aid the inhibitory function of self-control by keeping us from rejecting testimony and remaining open to conversation concerning prejudice and oppression out of agapic regard for others.

Having laid out this groundwork on Peircean affectivity, in chapter two on “The Affectivity of Cognition”, Trout focuses on the embodied, affective nature of cognition as developed by Peirce in his Journal of Speculative Philosophy “Cognition Series” of the 1860s. Trout focuses on showing how, according to Peirce, human cognition is shaped at once by individual and social factors. Taking account of the epistemological relationship between the individual and the community is crucial to understanding human cognition. On the one hand, the individual must rely on the wider epistemological perspective that her community affords her in order to foster her own survival and growth. On the other hand, the individual can be a source of insight and discovery when the community holds false beliefs or when communal inquiry is mired and growth in knowledge is threatened. While most of the emphasis in the “Cognition Series” is on the former relationship of individual dependence, Peirce does hint at the latter relationship of “maverick” individuality that will be developed later, in the series of “Illustrations of the Logic of Science” (p. 69-70).

Trout’s central thesis in this chapter is that feelings, as cognitions, result from both individual and social influences – such as unique embodiment and communal education – and may become habits that function nonconsciously at the level of instinct or common-sense, sometimes in the form of prejudicial beliefs (p. 72). Throughout the chapter she develops a detailed, carefully argued elaboration of this thesis – both individual and social factors shape the belief-habits that become part of a human organism’s instinctive common-sense. Our individual embodiment, and the affective dimension of cognition that it involves, is crucial to our cognitive, epistemic development.

And we are especially vulnerable to the influence of social factors during child-development because we are dependent on our caretakers, their authority and trustworthy testimony, for survival. Both of these dimensions of development shape the politics of child development and habit-taking then.

Trout’s discussion of socialized affectivity and habit formation in relation to the politics of child development is noteworthy (p. 103-127). She argues that, for Peirce, to be logical, an individual must adopt a social perspective. Fixing beliefs and forming habits on the basis of strictly individual experience and perspective most likely leads to false beliefs and ineffective habits. Thus, logicality – the drive for adopting true, probable, or plausible belief – requires adopting a social/communal perspective, based on the wealth of collective experience and evidence. In the case of human organisms, survival itself requires adopting a social perspective. Children, in particular, depend on the guidance and testimony of caretakers for survival. Thus they must accept that guidance as they begin to adopt beliefs and form habits. The problem is that communal influence can shape both habits that foster and habits that inhibit growth. And children are too vulnerable to adopt a critical stance. This is how socialized, growth-inhibiting habits can arise and be incorporated at the level of instinct and common-sense so as to operate non-consciously and without criticism later in life. Racist and prejudicial habits can arise in this way. This creates a “coercive survival dilemma”, namely, that children must trust the testimony of their adult caretakers to survive, but this testimony may instill in them growth-inhibiting beliefs such as prejudices based on race, ethnicity, and gender.

However, Trout finds a “Seed of Hope” or rather, two seeds, in Peirce’s thought (p. 124-127). The first is that insightful, resilient individuals can develop critical perspectives on their own habits and the habits of the community. The second is that the method of science for the fixation of belief can prevent the communal formation of growth-inhibiting habits in the first place.

Thus in chapter three, “The Affectivity of Inquiry,” she moves to discuss the method of science as presented by Peirce in his “Illustrations of the Logic of Science Series” published in the Popular Science Monthly in 1877-78. She begins by emphasizing two aspects of Peirce’s method of science. First, Peirce presents a robust individual inquirer who is able to challenge her authoritative, hegemonic community’s beliefs. Second, Peirce presents the method of science as the preferred method for the fixation of communal beliefs (p. 128). A balanced relationship between the insightful, creative individual inquirer who challenges communal opinion and the community’s commitment to settle belief publicly is necessary for the successful application of the method of science.

The most insightful aspect of Trout’s discussion of Peirce’s method of science, however, consists in her pointing out some potential problems for the application of the method that Peirce leaves unaddressed in the “Illustrations” series. Trout conjoins the concept of “socio-political secondness” with that of “false universalization” to demonstrate that “hegemonically exclusionary accounts of reality result in societal-level exclusionary habits, which can be internalized conceptually by individual community members, such that the very concepts by which individuals think about their world can reflect hegemonic, exclusionary habits” (p. 129). This leads to a description of “socio-politically biased conceptualization” as follows: Socio-politically biased conceptualization occurs, for example, when the experience of a hegemonic group or groups (such as whites, men, the economically secure, etc.) becomes internalized as the falsely universalized concept of “human experience.” A byproduct of this exclusionary conceptual internalization, which can function non-consciously or instinctively, is the perception that non-hegemonic perspectives (voiced by people of color, women, the poor, etc.) are problematic conceptually, that is, crazy, over-reactive, off-base, or simply irrelevant. This can lead to the dismissal of non-hegemonic perspectives. (p. 129).

For example, a member of a racial minority who denounces prejudiced treatment may be dismis,sed as over-reactive or resentful by white people who sincerely believe that racism is over in the USA. Trout then explains how in the “Illustrations” Peirce leaves unaddressed the problem of how background “common-sensical” beliefs can operate nonconsciously to influence and bias the application of the method of science for settling communal belief (p. 129).

This leads to what Trout calls the “application problem” of the method of science (p. 146-149). When exclusionary, prejudicial, growth-inhibiting belief-habits are internalized nonconsciously by members of the community in positions of power, such beliefs become part of their internalized common-sense. As a result, even when people consciously pursue the method of science, they may discount or disregard, for the articulation of reality, the testimony or experience of oppressed people in the community. These prejudicial belief-habits, therefore, may thwart the application of the method of science, since crucial data –testimonies and experiences – are ignored.

Trout discusses the example of “craniology,” a pseudo-science that purported to demonstrate the superiority of the white race (p. 147-149).

In the “Illustrations” Peirce only hints at, but does not develop, the solution to the application problem. The solution is two-fold. First, it involves the model of agapic evolution, and especially, the agapic sympathy that individual community members offer to each other, in order to validate and respond to the testimony and unjust experiences of oppressed people. Accordingly, in chapter four, Trout discusses the Monist “Cosmology Series” and association writings of the 1890s. Second, the solution involves the active work of Critical Common-sensism to detect, criticize, and transform growth-inhibiting and exclusionary habits. Accordingly, in chapter five, Trout discusses Peirce’s doctrine of Critical Common-sensism of the 1900s.

In “The Law of Mind, Association, and Sympathy” (chapter four), Trout develops the idea that individual experience – via association by contiguity – and creativity – via association by resemblance – are a potential source of insight, novelty, and growth for the community; therefore, agapic love is the ideal that the community should seek in its relationship to its individual members, especially to insightful, creative ones who may resist communal habits and who may belong to non-hegemonic groups.

However, applying the agapic ideal in actual communities can be undermined by the functioning of nonconscious exclusionary background beliefs.

Trout defines sympathy as “the term Peirce uses to describe the law of mind as it functions in human communities” (p. 195). She distinguishes between two forms of sympathy, agapic and non-agapic. Regarding agapic sympathy she writes, “In its ideal agapic form, sympathy embraces as sources of growth the creative bursts of spontaneity that arise within the existing habit systems of a community.” (p. 195).

However, “Sympathy can also play out non-agapically, excluding opportunities for growth by rejecting new elements that arise from existing habits.” (p. 195). An example of exclusionary sympathy may be patriotism – patriotic citizens may love their country in a way that rejects any fair criticism of it and ostracizes the critics.

The resulting thesis is that nonconscious exclusionary sympathy can curtail the possibility of communal growth through agapic sympathy by undermining the perspectives of non-hegemonic groups or individuals who deviate from or challenge communal norms (p. 195-196). To substantiate her thesis, Trout describes the “motion of agape” as circular, involving two movements: “First, a creative projection of newness, and second, an embracing and stabilizing of this spontaneous novelty. When human sympathy is agapic, it completes the circle by allowing for both movements.” (p. 203). The creative projection can consist in the experiential feedback of creative or insightful individuals to the community about its habits. The embracing would then consist in evaluating this feedback with an attitude of care and concern for the individual, and revising or transforming communal habits or norms if necessary.

The second motion, however, is thwarted by exclusionary sympathy (p. 206-207).

This dynamic leads to a problem regarding the agapic ideal that is analogous to the application problem regarding the scientific method, namely, that nonconscious exclusionary belief-habits can curtail growth through the agapic ideal. This can happen even to individuals who think themselves to embrace the agapic ideal and to be anti-racist or anti-sexist (p. 222).

The critical evaluation of common-sense, therefore, is crucial to overcome the threat of nonconscious exclusionary beliefs. Thus, in “Critical Common-sensism, 1900s” (chapter five), Trout defends the following thesis: Critical Common-sensism (CCS) is an epistemological doctrine that calls for a critical examination of the common-sense beliefs that underwrite human cognition.

It is thus uniquely suited to address social critical concerns about discriminatory beliefs that can become ingrained within one’s background beliefs without her or his awareness. The self-controlled scrutiny of background/common-sense beliefs called for by Critical Common-sensism provides the missing piece in terms of the application problem faced by both the scientific method and the agapic ideal. (p. 229).

Trout is indeed preparing the ground for the ultimate upshot of her entire analysis, which is worth quoting at length: [W]hen Critical Common-sensism is ideally applied, it does not leave scientific and agapic ideals behind. Rather the strands of science, agape, and Critical Commonsensism weave into a tapestry of loving reasonableness, where the embrace of diverse perspectives promotes growth in knowledge and self-control. Thus Critical Common-sensism provides those in hegemonic groups with consciousness-raising tools that can help them address their blind spots towards discrimination faced by those in non-hegemonic groups. Scientific method and agape provide the epistemological and loving motivation to put this awareness into practice by resisting exclusionary instinctive beliefs despite how strong their influence can be. (p. 229-230).

The core of the argument is the following. Critical common-sensism, when working in unison with the method of science for the fixation of beliefs and with agapic love in human transaction, promotes the growth of the summum bonum, namely, loving reasonableness. In particular, the rigorous application of critical common-sensism for the identification and eradication of discriminatory, prejudicial instinctive beliefs solves the application problem that threatens both science as the guide to knowledge and truth and agapic sympathy as the guide to human transaction.

Recall that the problem consists in the threat that nonconscious discriminatory, prejudicial beliefs pose to the application of the method of science and the functioning of agapic sympathy in human communities. Critical common-sensism – through its tools of logical analysis, experience, experimentation in imagination, and testimony – addresses the problem by identifying and eradicating such threatening discriminatory biases. In order to do its work, Critical Common-sensism requires the cultivation of legitimate, critical doubt. This doubt is to be distinguished from Cartesian paper-doubt by the fact that it not only identifies dubitable belief-habits but also works consciously to transform or eliminate them as embodied, affective habits. That is, while paper-doubting is to act as if beliefs were merely contents of a mind separated from the body and is therefore to delude oneself by thinking that merely to doubt a belief-habit is enough to eliminate its effective influence over one’s actions, critical common-sensist doubting acknowledges that belief-habits are embodied and affective and that therefore especial critical effort is necessary to change or eliminate them.

In the kinds of sociopolitical contexts that Trout analyzes, critical commonsensist doubt takes the form of the “non-hegemonic hypothesis” to the effect that (a) when an oppressed individual or group claims that they are experiencing discrimination, their testimony and experiences ought to be a matter of agapic concern and (b) their claims deserve investigation by the communal application of the method of science. The cultivation of this form of doubt requires self-control. The cultivation of this “non-hegemonic hypothesis,” as supported by Peirce’s entire system of philosophy, is our main starting point for redressing some prevalent, though often nonconscious, forms of social injustice.

In her “Conclusion,” Trout first summarizes her central argument and, second, proposes a way to promote awareness and to address discriminatory belief-habits in contemporary US society, specifically in the context of elementary school education.

Trout closes her book in fallibilistic spirit, acknowledging further work to be done and reaffirming her deliberate choice of developmental telos, namely, Peirce’s ideal of “giving a hand toward rendering the world more reasonable” (p. 283).

Overall, the upshot of Trout’s analysis is that the coordinated, mutually supportive relationship between the method of science, agapic love, and Critical Commonsensism provides the way to overcome forms of social injustice that are brought about by nonconscious, hegemonic, prejudicial belief-habits in a community. She discusses some specific forms of social injustice in the USA, but her analysis provides a model to extend the application of Peirce’s philosophy to understand other forms in social injustice in a variety of cultural and historical contexts, including Latin American ones.

Daniel G. Campos – Department of Philosophy Brooklyn College — City University of New York/ USA. E-mail: [email protected]

Acessar publicação original

As Relações entre o Brasil e o Paraguai (1889-1930): do afastamento pragmático à reaproximação cautelosa | Francisco M. Doratioto || José Martí e Domingo Sarmento: duas idéias de construção da hispano-América | Dinair A. Silva || Segurança Coletiva e Segurança Nacional: a Colômbia entre 1950-1982 | César Miguel Torres Del Rio || Entre Mitos/ Utopia e Razão: os olhares franceses sobre o Brasil (século XVI a XVIII) | Carmen L. P. Almeida || A Parceria Bloqueada: as relações entre França e Brasil/ 1945-2000 | Antônio C. M. Lessa || Políticas Semelhantes em Momentos Diferentes: exame e comparação entre a Política Externa Independente (1961-1964) e o Pragmatismo Responsável (1974-1979) | Luiz F. Ligiéro || Dimensões Culturais nas Relações Sindicais entre o Brasil e a Itália (1968-1995) | Adriano Sandri || Opinião Pública e Política Exterior nos governos Jânio Quadros e João Goulart (1961-1964) | Tânia M. P. G. Manzur || O Parlamento e a Política Externa Brasileira (1961- 1967) | Antônio J. Barbosa || Los Palestinos: historia de una guerra sin fin y de una paz ilusoria en el cercano oriente | Cristina R. Sivolella || Do Pragmatismo Consciente à Parceria Estratégica: as relações Brasil-África do Sul (1918-2000) | Pio Penna Filho || Entre América e Europa: a política externa brasileira na década de 1920 | Eugênio V. Garcia

As relações internacionais, enquanto objeto de estudo, vêm se desenvolvendo de maneira satisfatória nos últimos anos no Brasil. Parte desse avanço é devido ao surgimento de cursos de pós-graduação na área, que colocam o estudo das relações internacionais, de modo geral, e a inserção externa do Brasil, em particular, no centro das preocupações de pesquisa. O primeiro programa de pós-graduação em História das Relações Internacionais na América do Sul foi criado na Universidade de Brasília, em 1976. Em torno desse Programa formou-se uma tradição brasiliense de estudo de relações internacionais. Ao longo de mais de vinte anos de atuação, o Programa produziu cerca de sessenta dissertações de mestrado e, com a implantação do doutorado em 1994, doze teses.

Uma particularidade das teses de doutorado do Programa é a diversidade temática. A ampliação dessa linha de pesquisa permitiu a modernização da História das Relações Internacionais. Assim, junto com os estudos que privilegiam as relações bilaterais do Brasil, inseriram-se novos temas e objetos de investigação. Com efeito, há estudos que aprofundam a análise das parcerias estratégicas, a opinião pública, a imagem, a segurança internacional, o pensamento político, as relações internacionais do Brasil e as relações internacionais contemporâneas. Tais estudos evidenciam a diversificação de olhares sobre a inserção internacional do Brasil. Leia Mais