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C. S. Peirce was an authentic American genius who developed a tough-minded pragmatism and a sweeping philosophy of evolutionary love. William James, a trained physician, carefully studied human experience, including the highest reaches of consciousness. Peirce and James established a rich, sensible, and pragmatic American approach to philosophy’s traditional problems.

The World of Philosophy series is a dramatic presentation, in understandable language, of the concerns, questions, interests, and overall outlook of the world’s great philosophers and philosophical traditions. Special emphasis on clear and relevant explanations gives you a new arsenal of insights toward living a better life. ... Read more

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Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) is regarded by many as the greatest American philosopher there has been. Best known as the founder of pragmatism - the philosophy that assesses the meaning of what we say by its practical consequences - his writings cover an enormous range of subjects. A highly original thinker, Peirce's influence can be found in ethics, aesthetics, symbolic logic, religion, epistemology and metaphysics, as well as scientific topics.

The greater part of Peirce's papers were unpublished during his lifetime and upon his death several hundred manuscripts were left to Harvard University. The editors succeeded in creating an order out of what had seemed to all, including Peirce himself, to be a disarray of papers and fragments. When the Collected Papers were published, the philosophical world recognized for the first time the depth, variety and power of Peirce's philosophy. The 8-volume collection includes Peirce's writings on general philosophy, logic, pragmatism, metaphysics, experimental science, scientific method and philosophy of mind, as well as reviews and correspondence. Out of print for many years, this major work is once again available to libraries and scholars. ... Read more

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In the twenty-four years since this book was first published, interest in the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce has grown considerably. He has been widely recognized as the father of pragmatism, a precursor of symbolic logic, and a worker in the field of the philosophy of science. Naturally enough, Mr. Feibleman devotes proper attention to these areas. Moreover, he details Peirce's less well-known contributions to metaphysics, ethics, and psychology.

The book has two aims. The first is to offer an introduction to the general philosophy of Peirce. The second has to do with the system implicit in Peirce's work. His writings were certainly unorganized, even though his ideas were not. Because of the kind of man he was, or perhaps because of the restraining force of adverse circumstances, but probably due to a combination of both causes, Peirce himself never formulated his system, though more than once he made plans to do so. His fault was one of method of presentation, not one of thought. In other words, Peirce had a systematic philosophy which he set down unsystematically. His scattered papers make a convincing argument that their sole purpose is to perfect an implicit system of philosophy. Mr. Feibleman's purpose is to make the implicit explicit. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (2)

Fine Introduction to Peirce
Peirce is a notoriously difficult philosopher to understand or explain clearly. Anderson does both exceedingly well, including two key texts with analysis, one the well-known "Fixation of Belief" and the other the much less well-known "The Neglected Argument for the Reality of God." If one is exposed to Peirce one ususally gets the "Fixation" article along with "How to Make Our Ideas Clear," leaving one with a very lopsided view of Peirce. The choice to balance the "Fixation" article with one of Peirce's most imaginative and speculative late essays is brilliant. Disregard the negative comments by the nitwit who gave this book one star. If you are looking for a helpful, reliable, clear introduction to an important philosopher, this is a good place to start.

too little Peirce, too little system, too little philosophy
This is a (unintentionally) funny book.Maybe the series that it is in is also (unintentionally) funny.I think the series is defunct.Much of the book is a reprint of a couple key essays by Peirce.OK, that is fine.What does Anderson add?I am not sure.The book purports to examine some of the strands of Peirce's system of philosophy, but these strands are never effectively put in the context of the whole system, and the strands themselves are interpreted in a manner that seems more in keeping with what he author seems to want Peirce to say than with what Peirce actually said.Anderson's Peirce is a kind of religious, proto-personalist, almost politically reactionary and self-righteous thinker.Perhaps Peirce was like that, but even the texts included in the book do not simply or singly support that conclusion.Instead of this book, better to read more of Peirce and get it straight from the system's mouth, or else read some of the interesting secondary material written in recent years by the likes of Sandra Rosenthal and Vincent Colapietro and Ken Ketner. ... Read more

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Charles Sanders Peirce is widely recognized as the founder of American pragmatism. Apel's systematic, sweeping, and innovative study quickly turned into a classic of Peirce scholarship when first published and became a major factor during the late sixties and early seventies in the discovery of pragmatism by Continental philosophy. The work discusses the historical importance of pragmatism as one of the major modern responses to the 'disintegration of the Hegelian synthesis'. As a mediation between theory and praxis, Apel presents pragmatism as the major rival to both existentialism and Marxism, the two other responses to the Hegelian aftermath. In the same context, Apel demonstrates the importance of Peirce's conceptual breakthroughs, in the theory of signs (semiotics) and the theory of rationality, for the challenges and possibilities of a critical theory of society. The contemporary developments of the Frankfurt School, in its third generation now, cannot be understood without Apel's appropriations of Peirce for a grounding of a critical theory of society as formulated in this systematic reconstruction of modern philosophy.This work is also crucial for an understanding of Apel's own philosophical project of a transcendental pragmatics, or semiotics. With the revival of Peirce studies, and the rediscovery of the pragmatist tradition in American philosophical thinking, this study articulates a very contemporary and relevant interpretation that may challenge and even go against the grain of many so-called Neopragmatists. This book will also be of interest to those scholars interested in the development of post World War-II German thought, and the influence of North American thinking on European thought in general. ... Read more

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The last Great Enlightenment Philosopher
If you still believe that the enlightenment is more convincing than unquestioned ignorance (or what amounts to the same thing--a philosophical return to fundamentalist authoritarinism hidden within a philosophy of what is thought to be radically 'other')this book is a great book to have.Or if you are convinced by the arguments of Habermas but wish that he would stop apologising and parsing words with himself, then this brilliant and above all clear book by Karl-otto Apel is for you.Apel is one of the last philosophers left who can make a strong argument in favour of reason.He is thelast great scientific and rational humanist left in an intellectual landscape which is more and more looking like an ode to the ultimate demise of reason and sanity. ... Read more

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Charles S. Peirce, the founder of pragmatism, was also the architect of a remarkable theory of signs that continues to puzzle and inspire philosophers today. In this important new book, Mats Bergman articulates a bold new approach to Peirce's semeiotic through a reassessment of the role of rhetoric in his work. This systematic approach, which is offered as an alternative to formalistic accounts of Peirce's project, shows how general sign-theoretical conceptions can plausibly be interpreted as abstractions from everyday communicative experiences and practices. Building on this fallible ground of rhetoric-in-use, Bergman explicates Peirce's semeiotic in a way that is conducive to the development of rhetorical inquiry and philosophical criticism. Following this path, the underpinnings of a uniquely Peircean philosophy of communication is unearthed a pragmatic conception encased in a normative rhetoric, motivated by the continual need to transform and improve our habits of action. ... Read more

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Peirce’s Scientific Metaphysics is the first book devoted to understanding Charles Sanders Peirce’s (1839–1914) metaphysics from the perspective of the scientific questions that motivated his thinking.

Deftly situating Peirce’s often original and pathbreaking ideas within their appropriate historical and scientific contexts, Reynolds traces his reliance upon the law of large numbers, which illustrated for Peirce the emergence of a stable order and regularity from a multitude of chance events, throughout his writings on late nineteenth-century physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and cosmology. Along the way, Peirce’s vision of an indeterministic and evolutionary cosmology is contrasted with the thought of other important late nineteenth-century scientists and philosophers, such as James Clerk Maxwell, Ludwig Boltzmann, William Thomson (Lord Kelvin), Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, and Ernst Haeckel.

While offering a detailed account of the scientific ideas and theories essential for understanding Peirce’s metaphysical system (e.g., the irreversibility of time and the reversibility of physical laws, the statistical law of large numbers), this book is written in a manner accessible to the non-specialist. This will make it especially attractive to students of Peirce’s philosophy who lack familiarity with the scientific and mathematical ideas that are so central to his thought. Those with an interest in the history and philosophy of science, especially concerning the application of statistical and probabilistic thinking to physics, chemistry, biology, psychology, and cosmology, will find this discussion of Peirce’s philosophy invaluable. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a real time-saver...
The author made it clear relatively early on the Peirce beleived the order in the universe was a reflection of the mind that gave rise to matter. That is, that matter arose from mind.

This obviously is a form of mentalism, and not science.

If it is a scientific metaphysics you seek, then you need to keep searching.

I was grateful the author was so clear. ... Read more

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American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) is credited as the inventor of the philosophical school of pragmatism. Biographer Kenneth Ketner--Inspired by a friendship and correspondence with novelist Walker Percy, who was absorbed by the life and writings of Peirce--adopts a narrative strategy that lets Peirce tell his own early life story in this first of a planned three-volume project. 20 illustrations. ... Read more

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An American Philosopher in the Grand Manner
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 -1914) was an eccentric American genius and the founder of the philosophy generally known as pragmatism.A difficult, erratic, and sometimes violent man, he was denied in his attempts to secure an academic position and spent the last several years of his life in near isolation at his home, called Arisbe, near Milford, Pennsylvania. Peirce may be America's most significant philosopher.Yet he never produced a book.His reputation, insofar as it is based on his written work, is based on essays he wrote throughout his life and on large manuscripts which his admirers saw through to publication beginning shortly after his death.

Professor Kenneth Ketner, the author of this "autobiography" of Peirce, is an acknoledged authority on Peirce's life and thought. He calls this book, "His Glassy Essence" an "autobiography" because it is based in large part upon a selection of Peirce's writings and letters arranged to tell the story of his life.As Professor Ketner states, however, the book is also in part fiction.It includes three fictitious characters, the narrator, Ike, a writer of mysteries, his wife Betsey, a nurse, and Roy, a Harvard PhD in philosophy who allegedly knew and studied with Peirce.The story line involves Ike taking an interest in Peirce based upon an old box of Peirce's papers that Betsey has inherited.Roy comes into the story to provide information about Peirce and, not accidentally, some excellent discussions on the nature of philosophy.

The mechanism creaks at times.The story line is artificial although Roy has many insightful things to say in commenting on Peirce.It is difficult to separate fact from fiction in the account of Peirce because many of his letters and essays seem to be melded together from sources written at different times and places.Ketner's protestations notwithstanding, it is difficult to be convinced of the accuracy of the account presented here as scholarly biography.Finally, this book covers essentially only the first 28 years of Peirce's life (with forwards to his death and to some of his subsequent writings.) There are two promised sequels which are to continue the story through the remainder of Peirce's life.

For all the difficulties, I came away from this book with a better understanding of Peirce and some inkling of the development of his thought.Peirce's own distinctive ideas beging to be developed only in the last third or so of this book.The earlier sections deal largely with Peirce's years in college when he was deeply under the influence of Kant.

The book makes a good case that Peirce's work is narrowed unduly when he is viewed simply as one of the first American pragmatists.He was in fact a philosopher in the large manner concerned about science, about logic and categories in an expansive sense of these terms, and about God. He was an empiricist in the broadest sense that William James developed with his term "radical empiricism".I also see strong parallels in the account of Peirce given in this book to Husserl's phenomenology.

Peirce tought the distinction between knowledge, or the accumulation of facts, and wisdom and meaning which cannot be learned from the books.He developed the philosophy of signs called semiotics and invented a personal and highly idiosyncratic philosophical vocabulary, including terms such as "Cenopythagoreanism" (see page 342) which stretch the casual reader' patience and may stretch the more serious reader's mind.

This book gives an excellent picture of the philosophic mind, in the person of Charles Peirce, and of the serious and consuming nature of philosophic inquiry.It is not a book to read for a full account either of Peirce's life or his thought.It does capture something of the spirit of the man and the thinker.

Readers who want a historically based account of Peirce and his times might enjoy "The Metaphysical Club" by Louis Menand. Ketner's book is cited in the references for Menand and it covers much of the same ground, Peirce's life, his relationship to his father, the mathematician Benjamin Peirce, the metaphysical club which met briefly at Harvard in the 1870s, the effect of the Civil War on American pragmatism, and much else.The distinctive value of Ketner's book, I think, is that for all its problems it will allow the reader to see Peirce from the inside out.

"Glassy Essence" is a valuable resource
For me the book, "His Glassy Essence," has been invaluable. Ketner has pulled together information about Peirce's early life that I could not possibly have gotten to on my own. Since I am not attached to anyinstitution, I do not have access to any unpublished documents. I am notsure I would have been able to find the information Ketner has laid out inthis book even if I had such access. He has pulled together a great deal ofinformation from diverse sources and put these scattered pieces together inchronological and contextual order.

This book has been immensely helpfulto me for coming to understand the provenance of Peirce's pragmatism. Now,it is obvious to me that there was no abrupt beginning to the developmentof Peirce's pragmatic theory. Now that I know of his early exposure toqualitative discernment and aesthetics, I can identify these as central tothe evolution of his theory of abduction-something I have suspected allalong, but had been unable to nail down because of the lack of achronological and contextual framework for Peirce's early life.

Theauthor did a fine job of referencing information, providing page by pagenotes at the end of the book. These references were noted in such a waythat they do not interfere with the reading of the text--which unfolds in astory-like way, enabling me to see how Peirce fit within his context. Thebiographical and temperamental information concerning Peirce's father, forexample, fleshed out the cultural and familial milieu in which he wasraised-seemingly as a crown prince of the intellectual world for which hisfather was a sort of king.

Although there are minor discrepancies (suchas a brother who seems to have been left out)and occasional confusions whenfollowing the story line, I think that this book is going to be very usefulfor anyone wanting to know about the early Peirce. I am finding "HisGlassy Essence" especially useful as a reference tool. I suspect thatother independent researchers, like myself, who are working with Peirce'sideas, but do not have access to unpublished materials by or about him willfind this book useful as well.

Experience the Transforming Power of this book for yourself
As a Peircean supporter of personal inquiry I can't in good conscience write a traditional "review" like the Kirkus one which dominates this page.I write to encourage everybody to disregard the Kirkus commentsand explore His Glassy Essence (and their own, in turn) for themselves.

Having read the correspondence between Ketner and Percy in Thief ofPeirce, I know that Percy commissioned Ketner to write this volume.Thatsaid, I believe that Charles S Peirce, Walker Percy, and Kenneth L. Ketnerare all speaking to any person whose interests run toward open-minded,evaluative, and exploratory inquiry into Life.What better way to discoveryour own Way than to see it in the life of another, namelyPeirce.

Personally, I have no doubt in my heart that Percy would bepleased with Ketner's first installment of the life of CS Peirce.But, byall means, don't take anyone's word for it --- be Percy's sovereignwayfarer, pick up a copy of HGE, and discover Peirce's transformative powerfor you own self! ... Read more

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Hausman has written a book whose purpose is to present Peirce's evolutionary realism as his systematic position.The book follows the thread of Peirce's Pragmaticism from its conception, through the theory of signs, the phenomenology and derivation of the categories to the concept of Synechism, which Hausman takes as the heart of Peirce's evolutionary realism. This is a well-organized discussion of Peirce's work, introducing a continuity to his theories. This book is recommended for upper-level undergraduate philosophy majors and graduate students, as well as professional philosophers. ... Read more

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Christopher Hookway presents a series of studies of themes from the work of the great American philosopher and pragmatist, Charles S. Peirce (1839-1913). These themes center on the question of how we are to investigate the world rationally. Hookway shows how Peirce's ideas about this continue to play an important role in contemporary philosophy. ... Read more

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This volume represents an important contribution to Peirce's work in mathematics and formal logic. An internationally recognized group of scholars explores and extends understandings of Peirce's most advanced work. The stimulating depth and originality of Peirce's thought and the continuing relevance of his ideas are brought out by this major book.