The Twilight of Reality and the Melancholic Irony of Brilliant, Unlasting Success: Reflecting on Emotional and Logical Interpretants in Peirce’s Modes for Fixation of Beliefs

Abstract

The Fixation of Belief (1877) probably is one of the most famous among the papers published by Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914) during his lifetime. In this essay, Peirce proposed four methods hereby human beliefs may become fixed, namely, tenacity, authority, a priori and scientific. However, I consider that the richness and originality of this paper were not yet completely explored, mainly when we make use of the concepts and vocabulary of Semiotics for a deeper analysis of the pragmatic consequences of such fixation methods. Then, some of the following questions can be formulated: which cognition modes or, in other words, which logical interpretants are connected with these beliefs? What sort of conjectures about the emotional interpretants could be proposed, taking into account their possible consideration by psychoanalysis? To what types of action each one gives rise, as their external side that allows inferring the general nature of the respective belief as its internal side? These questions, supposedly, would open an interesting new speculative level for understanding the four types of belief and, consequently, of the habits that are associated with each one. To treat such questions, I intend to use the concept of semiotic dialogy as a process that provides continuity towards general logical forms capable of communication and growth. It will be highlighted that, when this continuity becomes blocked or truncated, dogmatic beliefs consequently arise.