Търсейки информация за едно от петте понятия за случайност, върху които работя в момента (контингентност, акциденталност, съвпадение, шанс, произволност), попаднах отново на този относително известен, фриволен и обективно-идеалистичен откъс от Пърс, където – особено към края – се наблюдават леки драматични нотки. Любопитното е, че те съвпадат с част от постхуманистичните прогнози и надежди днес:
„It would suppose that in the beginning, – infinitely remote, – there was a chaos of unpersonalised feeling, which being without connection or regularity would properly be without existence. This feeling, sporting here and there in pure arbitrariness, would have started the germ of a generalising tendency. Its other sportings would be evanescent, but this would have a growing virtue. Thus, the tendency to habit would be started; and from this with the other principles of evolution all the regularities of the universe would be evolved. At any time, however, an element of pure chance survives and will remain until the world becomes an absolutely perfect, rational, and symmetrical system, in which mind is at last crystallised in the infinitely-distant future.“ (Peirce 1891, 176).
Peirce, Charles S. (1891) – The Architecture of Theories; – The Monist, том 1, номер 2, януари 1891, с. 161-176, doi:10.5840/monist18911211