Fourth Selection, pp. 27Ð41.
MS 437. [Partially published in CP 1.616-648; fully published in Reasoning and the Logic of Things, pp. 105-122.]

Origin of the Text

Of the eight Cambridge Conferences Class Lectures Peirce delivered in February and March 1898, this was the first one, given on 10 February 1898. Peirce finished composing it on January 30, substituting it to another opening lecture William James had convinced him not to give (see WJ-CSP, 1/23/1898), which Peirce had titled "On Detached Ideas in General, and on Vitally Important Topics as such" (MS 435).