From
The
Philosophy of Peirce: Selected Writings, a very concise
refutation of Kant (pg. 15, his "Fixation of Belief" article,
CP 5.358-87), Kant believes that
An opinion that something is universally true
clearly goes further than experience can warrant. An opinion that
something is necessarily true (that is, not merely is true
in the existing state of things, but would be true in every state
of things) equally goes further than experience will warrant.
…
Kant proceeds to reason as follows:
- Geometrical propositions are held to be universally true.
- Hence, they are not given by experience.
- Consequently, it must be owing to an inward necessity of
man's nature that he sees everything in space.
- Ergo, the sum of the angles of a triangle will be equal to
two right angles for all the objects of our vision.
But the dry-rot of reason in the seminaries has gone to the
point where such stuff is held to be admirable argumentation.
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