ABSTRACT
Methodological naturalism is a claim regarding what method of inquiry is able to deliver genuine knowledge of reality. ‘The Fixation of Belief’ is certainly one of Peirce’s most famous papers. It is often considered his clearest endorsement of methodological naturalism. According to the general claim of ‘extreme’ methodological naturalism, the experimental method of the natural sciences is the only genuine source of knowledge of reality. If ‘Fixation’ appears to commit Peirce to a form of ‘extreme’ methodological naturalism, people get a completely different picture if they look at the classification of the sciences Peirce developed between the end of the nineteenth- and the beginning of the 20th century. Sciences of discovery are sciences that have only the attainment of knowledge as their purpose. These are opposed to the ‘practical’ sciences where the acquisition of knowledge is subordinated to different aims.
