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The universe works on a math equation that never even ever really even ends in the end: Charles Sanders Peirce's Evolutionary Metaphysics and the Law of Large Numbers

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dc.contributor.authorJarrott, Joshua, author
dc.contributor.authorKasser, Jeff, advisor
dc.contributor.authorGorin, Moti, committee member
dc.contributor.authorBeachy-Quick, Dan, committee member
dc.date.accessioned2019-01-07T17:19:55Z
dc.date.available2019-01-07T17:19:55Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractRecent work on Charles Sanders Peirce's evolutionary cosmology and scientific metaphysics has revealed a tension between two accounts Peirce gives of the laws of nature. Andrew Reynolds points out that Peirce seems to have thought that the laws evolved both in a statistical way—according to which the laws themselves are the statistical result of the Law of Large Numbers applied to instances of the laws—and also in a more directly evolutionary way, according to which instances of the laws reinforce one another making future instances conform to past ones. By forming "habits". These two analyses are straightforwardly incompatible, since the Law of Large Numbers requires events in the series to which the statistical analysis applies to be independent from one another, whereas the other account explicitly involves future law instantiations depending on past ones. Reynolds calls this problem the Incompatibility Problem. Despite the apparent contradiction, the work of this paper attempts a rational reconstruction of Peirce's evolutionary metaphysics, and on this reinterpretation of Peirce's cosmology, the incompatibility problem does not arise. On this view, the laws of nature remain statistical results of chance property instantiations, including dispositional property instantiations. It is argued, however, that Peirce need not be committed to the idea that instantiations of laws are dependent on one another. Rather, the view according to which habits in nature are formed is argued to apply to properties of the universe as a whole, thereby explaining why the universe contains any regularities at all. The so called "law of habit" is shown to be a special case of the Law of Large Numbers as applied to the world's properties, and the laws of nature are shown to be statistical results of various property instantiations.
dc.format.mediumborn digital
dc.format.mediummasters theses
dc.identifierJarrott_colostate_0053N_15269.pdf
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10217/193226
dc.languageEnglish
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisherColorado State University. Libraries
dc.relation.ispartof2000-2019
dc.rightsCopyright and other restrictions may apply. User is responsible for compliance with all applicable laws. For information about copyright law, please see https://libguides.colostate.edu/copyright.
dc.subjecthistory of philosophy
dc.subjectmetaphysics
dc.subjectpragmatism
dc.subjectLaw of Large Numbers
dc.subjectPeirce
dc.subjectAmerican philosophy
dc.titleThe universe works on a math equation that never even ever really even ends in the end: Charles Sanders Peirce's Evolutionary Metaphysics and the Law of Large Numbers
dc.typeText
dcterms.rights.dplaThis Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights (https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/). You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).
thesis.degree.disciplinePhilosophy
thesis.degree.grantorColorado State University
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Arts (M.A.)

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