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Charles Hartshorne claimed that

Peirce was pretty close to the first philosopher in the world who generalized the idea of freedom so that it applied to all the creatures....

In which writings does Charles Sanders Peirce generalize the idea of freedom so that it applies to all creatures?

This continues the exploration started in a previous question: Are there philosophers who have considered free will for agents who are not considered rational?

A New Worldview_An Interview with Charles and Dorothy Hartshorne, Center for Process Studies https://youtu.be/A4CLEpIY0hY

Frank Hubeny
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    [The Doctrine of Necessity Examined (1892)](https://archive.org/details/C.S.Peirces5FamousTheMonistPapers), although you'll need the other Monist papers for context, especially The Architecture of Theories and The Law of Mind. – Conifold Oct 30 '18 at 02:33
  • @Conifold Both of those are in the *Philosophical Writings of Peirce* selected by Buchler. Thank you for the references. – Frank Hubeny Oct 30 '18 at 16:50
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    Ralph Cudworth stated, *...there is some contingent liberty in nature, and that men, and* ***other rational creatures***, *can add or cast in something of their own to turn the scales...* also, *...it is not easy to exclude brute animals from such a contingency as this...* and, *...But whatever be the case of brute animals as to this particular, whose insides we cannot enter into...* https://ia800406.us.archive.org/16/items/b28149294/b28149294.pdf – Bread Nov 11 '18 at 03:32
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    @Bread I think this reference shows that the idea did not originate with Peirce. Thank you! – Frank Hubeny Nov 11 '18 at 10:02

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Peirce's generalizations are all over the place in a number of his writings, including his;

  1. Essays in the Philosophy of Science
  2. The Fixation of Belief
  3. The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce.

Peirce's idea of freedom was grounded on his conception of" Firstness" which he defined as the quality of being independent and tone-determining. According to Peirce, all beings and realities retain a certain degree of Firstness or the capacity to act and choose according to their own solicitations and provocations.

Peirce argued that the macrocosm is characterized by an essential openness and indeterminacy and that all beings and realities have the eventuality to act and choose in ways that aren't completely destined by external forces. This idea of freedom is abecedarian to Peirce's gospel, and he saw it as a crucial aspect of the way the macrocosm operates

Mwine Isaac Norman
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