Why did Charles Sanders Peirce regard the scientific method as a way of fixing beliefs?

Charles Sanders Peirce regarded the scientific method as one of several ways of fixing beliefs because he viewed beliefs as essentially "habits of action" that provide stability and satisfaction, resolving the state of doubt or confusion that blocks habitual conduct.12

For Peirce, the scientific method is distinguished by its ability to clarify ideas through two primary lenses:
* Sensible effects: Ideas are clarified by considering the practical consequences or effects of their objects.12
* Habits of action: Ideas are further clarified by the habits of action that are adjusted to those specific effects.2

By employing this method, scientific inquiry aims to produce true beliefs. Peirce defined truth as the ideal limit—the opinion that is "fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate"—which is reached through the continuous, collective effort of the community of inquirers in the "infinite long run". Thus, the scientific method serves as a rational, self-correcting process for settling belief, grounded in experimentation and the ongoing progress of knowledge.132