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Birth and Background
Charles Sanders Peirce was born September 10th 1839 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was an American scientist, philosopher, logician and mathematician who is often labeled the "father of pragmatism" as a method of research - essentially a logical endeavor in creating a simple explanation of difficult words and abstract concepts. Philosopher Paul Weiss labeled Peirce "the most most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician" (Hare). -
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Peirce Graduates from Harvard
In 1859, Peirce graduated from Harvard, where he remained for another year to earn his Master of Arts Degree. After graduating from Harvard in 1859, he became employed by the United States Coast Survey for the Geodetic Survey where he remained employed for close to thirty years. He worked with goedesy and gravimetrics (Atkins). -
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The Development of Semiotic Theory
Peirce along with Saussure, developed the basis of semiotic theory. He formed a series of articles including "Questions Concerning Certain Capacities Claimed for Man" and "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities". Peirce recognized that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits: the same idea was used later to produce digital computers. His major work, unfinished, was to have been entitled "A System of Logic, Considered as Semiotic" (Everett, Norman, Britannica). -
Bachelor of Science in Chemistry
Peirce graduated again from Harvard's Lawrence Scientific School with the first Bachelor Science degree in chemistry in 1863 while being awarded the Summa cum Laude. (Atkin) -
"On a New List of Categories"
In 1867, Peirce wrote a new paper titled "On a New List of Categories" and presented it to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences outlining his initial concepts surrounding sign structure including sign-vehicle, object and an interpretent. He applied these three categories throughout the rest of his life. These category concepts lead to his 1878 paper for pragmatism entitled "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (Everett, Norman, Britannica). -
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"The Father of Pragmatism"
Peirce gave his earliest account of pragamatism which was influenced by his reading of Kant at a young age. The statement he developed would later be considered the foundation of the verification principle touted by logical positivists later on and earn him the title the "Father of Pragmatism". "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" states his principle "which allows us to achieve the highest grade of clarity about the concepts we use" (Atkin). -
Popular Science Monthly
Best known works are first two articles in a series of six that originally were collectively titled "Illustrations of the Logic of Science" and published in "Popular Science Monthly" from November 1877 through August 1878. The first is entitled “The Fixation of Belief” and the second is entitled "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (Burch). -
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John Hopkins University Lectures
From 1879 to 1884, he gave lectures in logic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. "However, he never did obtain a tenured position as a university professor, despite his many applications submitted from 1868-1895." During this time, he also wrote numerous scientific articles for the Survey, a number of which were republished in 1878 in his only book to be published during his lifetime, "Photometric Researches", which earned him international recognition among astrophysicists (Marchand). -
"The Law of Mind"
In 1892, Peirce produced a paper entitled "The Law of Mind" in which he states his inclination for diversity and progress which could be brought about by chance. "Absolute is well put in ; for if it merely happened so three times in succession, or three million times in succession, in the absence of any reason, the coincidence could only be attributed to chance" (Doyle). -
Death
Charles Sanders Peirce died in Milford, Pennsylvania due to cancer. He left 80,000 unpublished manuscripts which his widow sold to Harvard that same year. Organizations are still working to capture and digitize many of his works as his importance in foundation philosophy continues to grow and become more popular as well as widely accepted (Burch).