Chauncey Wright

American philosopher and mathematician

Chauncey Wrightwas an American philosopher and mathematician, who was an influential early defender of Darwinism and an important influence on American pragmatists such as Charles Sanders Peirce and William James.

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About the Chauncey Wright

Chauncey Wrightwas an American philosopher and mathematician, who was an influential early defender of Darwinism and an important influence on American pragmatists such as Charles Sanders Peirce and William James.

11 Quotes by Chauncey Wright

  1. 1.

    We receive the truths of science by compulsion. Nothing but ignorance is able to resist them.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  2. 2.

    Let one persuade many, and he becomes confirmed and convinced, and cares for no better evidence.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  3. 3.

    Natural Selection never made it come to pass, as a habit of nature, that an unsupported stone should move downwards rather than upwards. It applies to no part of inorganic nature, and is very limited even in the phenomena of organic life.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  4. 4.

    The accidental causes of science are only accidents relatively to the intelligence of a man.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  5. 5.

    All observers not laboring under hallucinations of the senses are agreed, or can be made to agree, about facts of sensible experience, through evidence toward which the intellect is merely passive, and over which the individual will and character have no control.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  6. 6.

    By what criterion… can we distinguish among the numberless effects, that are also causes, and among the causes that may, for aught we can know, be also effects, – how can we distinguish which are the means and which are the ends?

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  7. 7.

    The pains of disconcerted or frustrated habits, and the inherent pleasure there is in following them, are motives which nature has put into our wills without generally caring to inform us why; and she sometimes decrees, indeed, that her reasons shall not be ours.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  8. 8.

    And we owe science to the combined energies of individual men of genius, rather than to any tendency to progress inherent in civilization.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  9. 9.

    If they are, then the only ultimate truths are the particulars of concrete experience, and no postulate or general assumption is inherent in science until its proceedings become systematic, or the truths already reached give direction to further research.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  10. 10.

    The questions of philosophy proper are human desires and fears and aspirations – human emotions – taking an intellectual form.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician

  11. 11.

    Such evidence is not the only kind which produces belief; though positivism maintains that it is the only kind which ought to produce so high a degree of confidence as all minds have or can be made to have through their agreements.

    Chauncey Wright

    American philosopher and mathematician