Single Idea 14789

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 1. Empiricism]

Full Idea

If Mill says that experience is the only source of any kind of knowledge, I grant it at once, provided only that by experience he means personal history, life. But if he wants me to admit that inner experience is nothing, he asks what cannot be granted.

Gist of Idea

Experience is indeed our only source of knowledge, provided we include inner experience

Source

Charles Sanders Peirce (The Nature of Mathematics [1898])

Book Reference

Peirce,Charles Sanders: 'Philosophical Writings of Peirce', ed/tr. Buchler,Justus [Dover 1940], p.149


A Reaction

Notice from Idea 14785 that Peirce has ideas in mind, and not just inner experiences like hunger. Empiricism certainly begins to look more plausible if we expand the notion of experience. It must include what we learned from prior experience.

Related Idea

Idea 14785 The world is one of experience, but experiences are always located among our ideas [Peirce]