Inquiry Method Analysis

Contrary to the general definition of inquiry, Charles Peirce describes inquiry as “the struggle to escape doubt and attain a settled or “fixed” state of belief” (lecture 1/12/17). Based off his definition containing belief and doubt, Peirce would affirm that people are often content with belief and will try to eliminate all traces of doubt. In order to accomplish his definition of “inquiry”, Peirce describes four methods of “fixing belief” that many people tend to choose in order to settle their beliefs. His four methods are, the method of tenacity, the method of authority, the a priori method, and the method of science. Each of these methods will (1) present an idea of what truth is, (2) display the failure of the method, and (3) reveal what …show more content…
The idea of this method is essentially, “the truth is whatever I believe” (lecture 1/17/17). People practicing this method hold a strong belief and rather than trying to find real evidence to validate their belief, they will continue to believe it based off their own individual reasons. Unfortunately, individuals that use this method will realize how the “social impulse is against it” (Haack p. 117), meaning their beliefs could be susceptible to doubt if they were to interact with others. A social interaction would result in differing beliefs being presented, so it is likely that an individual would eventually end up questioning the validity of their fixed beliefs. So as opposed to suggesting society to become “hermits” (Haack p. 117) and by having them hide to avoid influence from one another, Peirce reveals that truth must be made public and be made the same for …show more content…
Peirce begins by defining the method of science as, “paying attention to your experience of the world, and then applying your reasoning to figure at how the world must be” (lecture 1/17/17). The method of science is different from the other methods because it’s technique in discovering truth utilizes both reason and collective experiences. This results in the idea of truth as being “whatever we will believe as a result of investigation” (lecture 1/17/17). Unlike the various methods listed before, Peirce believes that the method of science is the best possible way of attaining a good permanently settled belief because it includes an external permanency and assumes realism. So due to the method of science being both “independent of what anyone thinks” and “independent of what anyone thinks about it” (Handout 2 1/24/17), Peirce affirms his belief that the method of science is the best we can do in trying to obtain a settled