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Peirce, Muybridge, and the Moving Pictures of Thought
- Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 53, Number 4, Fall 2017
- pp. 511-527
- 10.2979/trancharpeirsoc.53.4.01
- Article
- Additional Information
Abstract:
Peirce once called his graphical system of logic—the Existential Graphs—the moving pictures of thought. I argue that Peirce meant that using his graphs to study the movement of thought is akin to Eadweard Muybridge’s use of moving pictures to study animal motion, and I show that this analogy is highly apt for several reasons. The analogy is apt because: (1) Just as animal motion is continuous, thought is continuous; (2) Animal motion, like the movement of thought, is too swift and complex to examine directly, without aid; (3) Nevertheless, just as we can record a series of moments of animal motion with the use of a special instrument (viz., cameras and instantaneous photographs), so too we can record a series of moments of thought with the use of a special instrument (viz., the Existential Graphs), enabling us to study its structure; and (4) Through the study of these moments of thought, or of animal motion, we will improve our understanding of them and be able to settle debates about them.