Charles Sanders Peirce 1839 – 1914
Charles Sanders Peirce was a 19th and early 20th-century American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, regarded as the founder of pragmatism and one of the most original thinkers in the American philosophical tradition. His pragmatic maxim, formulated in How to Make Our Ideas Clear in 1878, holds that the meaning of any idea consists in the conceivable practical effects of its object. He made foundational contributions to formal logic, semiotics, and the philosophy of science, and developed an elaborate metaphysical system in his later work. Despite his philosophical importance he led a difficult professional life and never held a permanent academic position. His vast manuscript archive has been edited and published over the past century, securing his place as a major figure of modern philosophy.
Key facts
- Nationality
- American
- Era
- Modern
- Movements
- Pragmatism
Selected quotes
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object.”
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“Doubt is an uneasy and dissatisfied state from which we struggle to free ourselves and pass into the state of belief.”
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“We must not begin by talking of pure ideas, vagabond thoughts that tramp the public roads without any human habitation, but must begin with men and their conversation.”
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“It seems a strange thing that a sign should leave its interpreter to supply a part of its meaning.”
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Attributed to Charles Sanders Peirce:
“The opinion which is fated to be ultimately agreed to by all who investigate, is what we mean by the truth.”