Charles Sanders Peirce Philosophy
American Scientist, Philosopher and Logician, Founder of Pragmatism
Jul 18, 2009
Charles Sanders Peirce, an American scientist whose interest in philosophy began as a hobby, is responsible for one of the most influential philosophy movements, pragmatism, or, pragmaticism, as he later renamed it to distinguish his views from William James, also famous for pragmatism.
Brief Biography of Charles Sanders Peirce
Peirce was born on September 10, 1839 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was educated as a chemist and employed by the US Coast Guard and Geodetic Survey as scientist for 30 years. He also lectured on logic. It is largely his founding of pragmatism, and his significant contributions to logic, that he is best known.
A great innovator, he mainly considered himself a logician. He made major contributions to logic, which to him encompassed much of what is now called epistemology and philosophy of science. He saw logic, as the formal branch of semiotics, of which he is a founder.
As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits, decades later, the same idea used to produce digital computers. Peirce died at the age of 74, April 19, 1914.
Peirce Pragmaticist Philosophy
According to Peirce, the principle of "pragmaticist" philosophy is: if one can define accurately all the conceivable experimental phenomena which the affirmation or denial of a concept could imply, one will have a complete definition of the concept.
This view is principally concerned with establishing the meaning of concepts and beliefs, a philosophical emphasis at the "linguistic turn" of the 20th century.
One immediate effect of Peirce's pragmaticism is to distinguish metaphysical propositions that are literally nonsense from the genuinely meaningful ones of "scientific metaphysics" – that is, those propositions with no sense on account of not representing any idea that has observable and sensible effects of practical significance.
Scientific metaphysics, according to Peirce, is an observational discipline concerning the the very basic elements of experience, often elements that are so fundamental they are difficult to discern. Therefore, scientific metaphysics and science are not part of one continuous discipline but rather, maintain the traditional hierarchical order of foundational and succeeding disciplines, respectively.
Rationale of Peirce Foundational Scientific Metaphysics
His foundational, scientific metaphysics begins with phenomenology, that is, the way things are presented to a person in experience, in particular, the difference between belief and doubt. He rejects the "paper doubt" of Descartes, those merely considered as an intellectual exercise. Peirce says that real doubt ensues when recalcitrant experience, and not merely reflection, causes us to waver in our beliefs. It is the real doubts that disrupt the usual behavioral patterns.
Scientific and pragmatic in his approach and work, Peirce suggests that knowledge is a "homeostatic" process by which the body employs reaction system to return to normal functioning as it responds to environmental upsets. He sees knowledge as a means of stabilizing habitual behavior in response to doubt.
In simple terms, Peirce philosophy is best taken as an aspect of science, where validity is contained in the sum of its practical consequences.
Suggested Works by Charles Sanders Peirce
- The Essential Peirce (2 volumes: 1992, 1998)
- The Cambridge Companion to Peirce, 2004
Sources:
- Clark, John, Ed. Illustrated Biographical Dictionary. London:Chancellor Press, 1994.
- McGovern, Una, Ed. Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers, 2002.
- Stokes, Philip. Philosophy, the Great Thinkers. London: Capella, 2007.
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