Editing Problem of universals (section)

===Peirce===
The 19th-century American logician [[Charles Sanders Peirce]], known as the father of [[pragmatism]], developed his own views on the problem of universals in the course of a review of an edition of the writings of George Berkeley. Peirce begins with the [[observation]] that "Berkeley's [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] theories have at first sight an air of paradox and levity very unbecoming to a bishop".<ref>Peirce, C.S. (1871), Review: Fraser's Edition of the ''Works of George Berkeley'' in ''North American Review'' 113(October):449-72, reprinted in ''[[Charles Sanders Peirce bibliography#CP|Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce]]'' v. 8, paragraphs 7-38 and in ''[[Charles Sanders Peirce bibliography#W|Writings of Charles S. Peirce]]'' v. 2, pp. 462-486. ''Peirce Edition Project'' [http://www.iupui.edu/~peirce/writings/v2/w2/w2_48/v2_48.htm Eprint].</ref> He includes among these paradoxical doctrines Berkeley's denial of "the possibility of forming the simplest general conception". He wrote that if there is some mental fact that works ''in practice'' the way that a universal would, that fact is a universal. "If I have learned a formula in gibberish which in any way jogs my memory so as to enable me in each single case to act as though I had a general idea, what possible utility is there in distinguishing between such a gibberish... and an idea?" Peirce also held as a matter of [[ontology]] that what he called "thirdness", the more general facts about the world, are extra-mental realities.