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[Circular for Course on the Art of Reasoning]

January 1887

Houghton Library

MR. C. S. PEIRCE

Member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, etc., formerly Lecturer upon the Logic of Science in Harvard and the Johns Hopkins Universities, and author of many scientific memoirs, gives instruction BY CORRESPONDENCE in

THE ART OF REASONING.

The education best entitled to be called liberal is that which is calculated to put the student in full possession of his powers and to enable him to direct them as he will. But if this be true, the art of thinking must be acknowledged to be the soul of liberal training, and to constitute, indeed, an education by itself. It is true that no single branch of learning can replace a rounded culture; but if circumstances compel the choice of a single branch, that one should be the science of thought itself. If, on the other hand, many studies are pursued, the only rule by which the student can keep his knowledge in order and render it efficient is never to lose sight of the doctrine of method as the goal of every other discipline. “Dialectic,” says the old text book which was everywhere used throughout the middle ages, “dialectic is the art of arts; it is the science of science; and it holds the road to the principles of all methods.”

The instruction of Mr. PEIRCE is conducted entirely by means of practical exercises to be performed by the pupil, each being accompanied by the necessary explanations of how it is to be executed, and followed by reflections upon the nature of the proceeding and why it has been successful, with criticism of faults, and with answers to questions and resolutions of perplexities. The theory of reasoning is not neglected; but it is never divorced from its practical applications nor touched upon before living examples make the necessity and significance of it apparent. All education, broad or narrow, is intended to teach the student to do something (unless mere information be reckoned as education); and there is but one way of learning to do anything, namely, by graduated exercises leading up to the final performance of it, with close attention to the modes of executing each of those exercises. Even when the old technical logic was taught with success in the universities, it was by practical exercises, namely, by continual disputes, of which the lectures were only exemplifications. The student disputed every day. He disputed before breakfast, during breakfast, after breakfast, all day, and often half the night. Now modem science has shown us that it is not by disputations that truth is to be attained; and mere debating cannot for an instant be recommended as suitable to train a man in genuine, solid, and remunerative reasoning. But other exercises, every whit as strenuous and invigorating, can be, and have been devised to replace disputations and to do for the reasoning of the nineteenth century what those did for that of the fourteenth. Mr. PEIRCE has prepared such a series of exercises, as the fmit of long experience and intense study, and no intending student need doubt that the full course will make him an acuter, a broader, and a higher mind. The ordinary course is designed to meet the wants of those young men and women who have been debarred from the privileges of a college education, and even from the training preparatory to it. Although it is not claimed that this course is a full substitute for a liberal education, yet the student who follows it out to the end will surely find that doing this work will, in some important respects, more than compensate him for the college instmction he may have missed. Abridged and modified courses have been arranged for law-students, for divinity-students, and for college graduates generally.

The following list shows the subjects of the exercises.

PART I.—TRADITIONAL LOGIC. Exercises in common-sense syllogistic reasoning, to be rapidly passed over. Logical analyses. Arranging ideas. Divisions and classifications. Definitions.

This part is given in thirty to sixty letters.

PART II.—MATHEMATICAL REASONING. Solution of logical problems by algebra. Problems in higher arithmetic. Problems in geometry. Stating ordinary questions of life in mathematical terms. Problems in probabilities. Errors of observations.

This part requires sixty to ninety letters.

PART III.—SCIENTIFIC REASONING. Exercises in sampling. Inductions. Extrapolations. Framing hypotheses. Analogies. The generalization of problems and methods. The art of asking questions. Precautions in considering moral and spiritual questions: the world not governed by blind law.

This part is treated in sixty letters.

The plan of Correspondence is as follows: Each letter from Mr. PEIRCE contains answers to the student’s difficulties, general criticisms, corrections of the last exercise and two new ones with explanations, the whole being sufficient to occupy the pupil for four hours. As soon as possible after the receipt of the letter, the student should carefully read it, go through the corrected task, and then perform the first of the new ones with the aid of the explanations sent, spending about two hours upon all this. He then forwards in duplicate all that he has done since his last letter, states how long he has worked on each part, and puts any questions he desires to ask. There remains in his hand material for two hours more work before the reply to his letter is received.

Under this system, the student will not be treated as if he were in a class. His peculiar difficulties will receive special attention, and the teaching will be moulded to his individual needs. Hence, nobody who feels impelled to seek the instruction need hesitate on account of any apprehended unfitness. He may confidently leave the resolution of such doubts with Mr. PEIRCE, who is under no temptation to accept any pupil for whom he cannot do good service.

A complete course usually requires one hundred and eighty letters extended over a period of from a year and a half to three years. The terms are $30.00, in advance, for each quarter of thirty letters. Any person desiring instruction should write to Mr. PEIRCE making application for the same, enclosing $5.00 (by postal note or otherwise) as a guarantee of good faith, giving his name and address, age, and full particulars in regard to previous education. Should the application not be entertained, the fee is returned. Otherwise, the name of the person is at once added to the end of the list of Accepted Applicants, from which pupils are taken in regular order as fast as vacancies in Mr. PEIRCE’S time permit. Any person whose name has remained upon the list of Accepted Applicants for more than three months can withdraw it, and will then receive back the fee, less postage. As soon as a person is made a pupil, he is notified, and must immediately remit the balance of the $30.00 for the first quarter. Old pupils are requested to state at about the twentieth lesson whether they desire to go on with another quarter, and if so, whether to continue without intermission.

Address by letter only,

C. S. PEIRCE,36 West 15th Street, New York.

“The Art of Reasoning” advertisement from the May 1887 issue of the Century Magazine. Until this ad appeared, enrollments depended primarily on mass mailings of the course circular (selection 2) which Peirce had printed in January 1887. Bibliographical annotations in the top margin have been removed from this image of Peirce’s personal copy. Each issue’s advertising supplement was separately paginated, and was not usually included in bound volumes. (Photo courtesy of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.)