The Fixation of Belief
E425806
The Fixation of Belief is an 1877 philosophical essay by Charles Sanders Peirce that analyzes how people form and secure their beliefs and proposes a scientific method as the most reliable way to fix them.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Fixation of Belief canonical | 7 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4262282 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Fixation of Belief Context triple: [Charles Sanders Peirce, notableWork, The Fixation of Belief]
-
A.
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy is a collection of philosophical essays by William James that defends the legitimacy of religious and moral belief in the absence of conclusive evidence.
-
B.
The Principles of Empirical or Inductive Logic
The Principles of Empirical or Inductive Logic is a foundational 19th-century work by John Venn that systematically explores the theory and methodology of inductive reasoning in logic and probability.
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C.
The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences
The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences is William Whewell’s major 19th-century work in the philosophy of science, elaborating a systematic account of scientific method and the role of induction in the development of scientific knowledge.
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D.
Essays in Radical Empiricism
Essays in Radical Empiricism is a posthumously published collection of philosophical writings by William James that develops his influential doctrine of radical empiricism, emphasizing the primacy of experience and relations in understanding reality.
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E.
The Principles of Psychology
The Principles of Psychology is an influential 19th-century work by Herbert Spencer that applies evolutionary theory to explain mental processes and the development of the mind.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Fixation of Belief Target entity description: The Fixation of Belief is an 1877 philosophical essay by Charles Sanders Peirce that analyzes how people form and secure their beliefs and proposes a scientific method as the most reliable way to fix them.
-
A.
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy is a collection of philosophical essays by William James that defends the legitimacy of religious and moral belief in the absence of conclusive evidence.
-
B.
The Principles of Empirical or Inductive Logic
The Principles of Empirical or Inductive Logic is a foundational 19th-century work by John Venn that systematically explores the theory and methodology of inductive reasoning in logic and probability.
-
C.
The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences
The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences is William Whewell’s major 19th-century work in the philosophy of science, elaborating a systematic account of scientific method and the role of induction in the development of scientific knowledge.
-
D.
Essays in Radical Empiricism
Essays in Radical Empiricism is a posthumously published collection of philosophical writings by William James that develops his influential doctrine of radical empiricism, emphasizing the primacy of experience and relations in understanding reality.
-
E.
The Principles of Psychology
The Principles of Psychology is an influential 19th-century work by Herbert Spencer that applies evolutionary theory to explain mental processes and the development of the mind.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
non-fiction essay
ⓘ
philosophical essay ⓘ |
| advocates | method of science over other methods of fixing belief ⓘ |
| analyzes |
how people form beliefs
ⓘ
how people secure beliefs ⓘ |
| author | Charles Sanders Peirce ⓘ |
| centralClaim | only the method of science can lead to stable and objective belief ⓘ |
| contrasts | subjective methods of belief fixation with objective scientific method ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| discusses |
a priori method
ⓘ
method of authority ⓘ method of science ⓘ method of tenacity ⓘ |
| followedBy | How to Make Our Ideas Clear ⓘ |
| genre |
epistemological literature
ⓘ
philosophy of science literature ⓘ |
| hasKeyConcept |
belief as a habit of action
ⓘ
inquiry as struggle to settle opinion ⓘ irritation of doubt ⓘ |
| hasPageRange | 1–15 (Popular Science Monthly, vol. 12) ⓘ |
| hasPeirceClassification | CP 5.358–387 ⓘ |
| hasPhilosophicalPosition |
anti-skepticism through scientific inquiry
ⓘ
fallibilism about belief ⓘ |
| influenced |
20th-century pragmatism
ⓘ
American pragmatist movement ⓘ philosophy of science ⓘ |
| introducesConcept | four methods of fixing belief ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainTopic |
doubt and belief
ⓘ
epistemology ⓘ fixation of belief ⓘ logic of inquiry ⓘ methods of inquiry ⓘ scientific method ⓘ theory of belief ⓘ |
| partOf | Peirce’s Illustrations of the Logic of Science ⓘ |
| philosophicalTradition | pragmatism ⓘ |
| proposes | scientific method as the most reliable way to fix belief ⓘ |
| publicationMonth | November 1877 ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 1877 ⓘ |
| publishedIn | Popular Science Monthly ⓘ |
| relatedWork |
How to Make Our Ideas Clear
ⓘ
The Logic of Science series by Charles Sanders Peirce ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Fixation of Belief Description of subject: The Fixation of Belief is an 1877 philosophical essay by Charles Sanders Peirce that analyzes how people form and secure their beliefs and proposes a scientific method as the most reliable way to fix them.
Referenced by (7)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.