Values in a Universe of Chance: Selected Writings of Charles S. Peirce

by Charles Sanders Peirce, Philip P. Wiener (Editor)

A Selected Writings Volume of CS Pierce from the late 50's

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Science, Semiotics, History, American

446 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1958

About the author

Charles Sanders Peirce (/ˈpɜrs/, like "purse", September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". He was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. Today he is appreciated largely for his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, scientific methodology, and semiotics, and for his founding of pragmatism.

In 1934, the philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce "the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician". Webster's Biographical Dictionary said in 1943 that Peirce was "now regarded as the most original thinker and greatest logician of his time."

An innovator in mathematics, statistics, philosophy, research methodology, and various sciences, Peirce considered himself, first and foremost, a logician. He made major contributions to logic, but logic for him encompassed much of that which 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; the same idea was used decades later to produce digital computers.

Bertrand Russell (1959) wrote, "Beyond doubt [...] he was one of the most original minds of the later nineteenth century, and certainly the greatest American thinker ever." Alfred North Whitehead, while reading some of Peirce's unpublished manuscripts soon after arriving at Harvard in 1924, was struck by how Peirce had anticipated his own "process" thinking. Karl Popper viewed Peirce as "one of the greatest philosophers of all times". Yet Peirce's achievements were not immediately recognized. His imposing contemporaries William James and Josiah Royce admired him, and Cassius Jackson Keyser at Columbia and C. K. Ogden wrote about Peirce with respect, but to no immediate effect.

The first scholar to give Peirce his considered professional attention was Royce's student Morris Raphael Cohen, the editor of an anthology of Peirce's writings titled Chance, Love, and Logic (1923) and the author of the first bibliography of Peirce's scattered writings. John Dewey studied under Peirce at Johns Hopkins and, from 1916 onwards, Dewey's writings repeatedly mention Peirce with deference. His 1938 Logic: The Theory of Inquiry is much influenced by Peirce. The publication of the first six volumes of the Collected Papers (1931–35), the most important event to date in Peirce studies and one that Cohen made possible by raising the needed funds, did not prompt an outpouring of secondary studies. The editors of those volumes, Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, did not become Peirce specialists. Early landmarks of the secondary literature include the monographs by Buchler (1939), Feibleman (1946), and Goudge (1950), the 1941 Ph.D. thesis by Arthur W. Burks (who went on to edit volumes 7 and 8), and the studies edited by Wiener and Young (1952). The Charles S. Peirce Society was founded in 1946. Its Transactions, an academic quarterly specializing in Peirce, pragmatism, and American philosophy, has appeared since 1965.

Peirce has gained a significant international following, marked by university research centers devoted to Peirce studies and pragmatism in Brazil (CeneP/CIEP), Finland (HPRC, including Commens), Germany (Wirth's group, Hoffman's and Otte's group, and Deuser's and Härle's group), France (L'I.R.S.C.E.), Spain (GEP), and Italy (CSP). His writings have been translated into several languages, including German, French, Finnish, Spanish, and Swedish. Since 1950, there have been French, Italian, Spanish, British, and Brazilian Peirceans of note.

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have to admit that what I have read in this book was long ago, but I still have it, and should probably look at it again. I'm pretty sure that I'm in agreement with the general thrust of Pierce's pragmatism.



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[Ezra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peirce is a difficult character - enigmatic, at the least, and outright frustrating at the most. If he is hard to characterize, it is in no small part due to his tracks of contradiction, especially when comparing the young and old Peirce. At times, we can forgive much due to "shifts in thinking" (Nominalism to Realism, etc.), at other times Peirce discredits himself [sometimes directly - see p.378: "My original essay [HTMOIC] ... was so flimsy, while the inference was so nearly the gist of Pragmaticism, that I must confess the argument of that essay might with some justice be said to beg the question."]. Going through the table of contents ...

The Place of Our Age in the History of Civilization - typical brute, engaging writing, optimistic tone, not much substance-wise here

Questions Concerning Certain Faculties - classic repudiation of four or five mistakes in classical philosophy about consciousness, better stated by James but logically laid out here - also a better approach, or at least neater approach, to the rejection of a temporal 'thing-in-itself,' that, within in the terms of P's question (Can there be a cognition not determined by a previous cognition?) is better called a 'thing-at-first,' of course, which P denies

Some Consequences of Four Incapacities - classic argument for Idealism ("Every unidealistic philosophy..." - better stated form from the cognition q in QCCF), some humbug about logic, Reality = Community (p.69), Man is a sign, also at some point justification of 'all that is real can be known'

Critical Review of Berkeley's Idealism - bit of a history of Scholasticism, plus Nominalism vs Realism, lays out the theory that the Real proper is the product of, and not originator of, experience, lays out the social stakes of the debate at end of article, classic Peirce

FOB+HTMOIC - classic statements of Peirce's Pragmat[ic]ism

Notes on Positivism - random bits of a larger set of lecture notes/book outline that attack Comte's gang, I much prefer the larger version for its actual criticisms of Positivism - the selection choices here are not great

Architecture of Theories - Firstness, Secondness, Thirdness, + Evolutionism in Philosophy

The Doctrine of Necessity - Chance exists and is a determining factor in the world (this article rocks and also sucks)

What Pragmatism Is - classic alongside FOB and HTMOIC, Jesus=Pragmatist, new name furnished for P's Pragmatism (digs at James, etc), clarifications about the subjunctive element of Pragmatism (much-needed, see his letter to Mario Calderoni)

Issues of Pragmaticism - another proof of 'all that is real can be known,' some discussion of Critical Common Senseism, definition of vagueness, correction of 'Is a diamond encrusted in a cushion hard?' passage of HTMOIC, more clarifications on subjunctive element of Pragmatism

Lessons from the History of Scientific Thought (bunch of articles) - Not worth reading, nothing substantive, EXCEPT in Laws of Nature and Hume, which attempts a refutation of Hume's argument against miracles and discusses P's view on laws of nature (energizing reasonableness)

Science and Education (bunch of articles) - Nothing substantive!

Science and Religion (bunch of articles) - science and religion need not conflict and religion can take up the conclusions of science profitably, the central law of Christianity is universal love, and a Neglected Argument for God (God is intuitive in all men's minds, P claims, and as such there is good reason to believe in God) - weird article

Letters to Lady Welby - interesting at moments, especially for its coverage of Firstness vs Secondness vs Thirdness but otherwise just ends with some of P's final correspondence, which reflects on the awful conditions he lived his late life through

[Mark Gowan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Peirce is the progenitor of the philosophy of Pragmatism (known as the only purely American philosophy). Peirce, unlike William James (also considered a pragmatist) relies upon logical validation and an argumentative approach to define pragmatism. Rather than what is useful, Peirce's contentions are that what is useful is defined by deductive reasoning but honed by the inductive method. Peirce's writings added to the tombstone that has been placed upon metaphysics grave, early on. This is necessary reading for anyone interested in Pragmatism in its true (non-Jamesean) sense and for anyone interested in logical analysis.

The readings are philosophical and in part, personal as Peirce's notes are included. Having a little history concerning Charles Peirce is helpful in putting the readings in context. They are not difficult, but on the other hand this is not a book to read half-heartedly.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

AN EXCELLENT SELECTION OF PEIRCE'S WRITINGS

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, who was the founder of Pragmatism [which he called `Pragmaticism"] in philosophy.

The editor of this collection stated in the Introduction, "Two main purposes have guided the planning of the present collection of Peirce's writings: first, to introduce the general reader to the many sides of the most versatile, profound, and original philosopher that the United States has ever produced; second, to include unpublished and inaccessible material in which Peirce presented the cultural or humanistic aspects of science and philosophy and which have been neglected by students and editors of his work."

He observes, "If we seek the light of external facts, the only cases of thought which we can find are thought in signs. Plainly, no other thought can be evidenced by external facts. But we have seen that only by external facts can thought be known at all. The only thought, then, which can possibly be cognized is thought in signs. But thought which cannot be cognized does not exist. All thought, therefore, must necessarily be in signs." (Pg. 34)

He points out, "We cannot begin with complete doubt. We must begin with all the prejudices which we actually have when we enter upon the study of philosophy. These prejudices are not to be dispelled by a maxim, for they are things which it does not occur to us CAN be questioned. Hence this initial skepticism will be a mere self-deception, and not real doubt; and no one who follows the Cartesian method will ever be satisfied until he has formally recovered all those beliefs which in form he has given up. It is therefore, as useless a preliminary as going to the North Pole would be in order to get to Constantinople by coming down regularly on a meridian.

"A person may... find reason to doubt what he began by believing; but in that case he doubts because he has a positive reason for it, and not on account of the Cartesian maxim. Let us not pretend top doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts." (Pg. 40) He says, "The essence of belief is the establishment of a habit, and different beliefs are distinguished by the different modes of action to which they give rise." (Pg. 121)

Later, he adds, "Do you call it `doubting' to write down on a piece of paper that you doubt? If so, doubting has nothing to do with any serious business... Belief is not a momentary mode of consciousness; it is a habit of mind essentially enduring for some time, and mostly... unconscious... Doubt is of an altogether contrary genus. It is not a habit, but the privation of a habit." (Pg. 188-189)

He suggests, "By thus admitting pure spontaneity or life as a character of the universe, acting always and everywhere though restrained within narrow bounds by law, producing infinitesimal departures from law continually, and great ones with infinite infrequency, I account for all the variety and diversity of the universe, in the only sense in which the really sui generis and new can be said to be accounted for." (Pg. 175) Later, he says, "The endless variety in the world has not been created by law. It is not of the nature of uniformity to originate variation, nor of law to beget circumstance. When we gaze upon the multifariousness of nature we are looking straight into the face of a living spontaneity. A day's ramble into the country ought to bring that home to us." (Pg. 348)

He explains, "Pragmaticism was originally enounced in the form of a maxim, as follows: Consider what effects that might conceivably have practical bearings you conceive the objects of your conception to have. Then, your conception of those effects is the whole of your conception of the object. I will restate this in other words... The entire intellectual purport of any symbol consists in the total of all general modes of rational conduct which, in the total of all general modes of rational conduct which, conditionally upon all the possible different circumstances and desires, would ensue upon the acceptance of the symbol." (Pg. 204)

He argues, "Theology arises from discontent with religious Faith---which implies a lack of such Faith, and with a desire to substitute for that a scientific anatomy and physiology of God, which, rightly considered, is blasphemous and antireligious. It is also in most striking discord with the spirit of the son of Mary." (Pg. 401)

Although there has been somewhat of a "Peirce revival" in recent decades, he is still not well-known enough in philosophical circles. This book is an excellent introduction to his thought.

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just about the densest thing I have ever tried to read. Interesting, though.