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Born in 1839 to parents Sarah and Benjamin Pierce in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His father was a professor at Harvard University who taught astronomy and mathematics. He seemed to excel in knowledge at a young age and though a troublemaker in school, getting himself expelled multiple times, he graduated and was accepted into Harvard University. -
He graduates from Harvard University with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry. He was the first person to receive said degree 'summa cum laude', or with the highest distinction. He was asked to lead lectures at the University regarding his studies of logic and pragmatism. -
He spent a year with field parties of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey while attending Harvard University. He returned to the Survey in 1861 to help his father determine the longitudes of American survey points. He supervised a project regarding the Earth's ellipticity while also contributing to pendulum swinging as a means of measuring the force of gravity.
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Presenting a paper titled "On a New List of Categories" to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences reducing Kant's a priori forms into three categories: quality, relation and representation. Charles believed these are the only types of predicates. -
Following his pursuit to theorize the use of pendulum swinging to measure Earth's gravitational force, Charles pioneered the idea to determine the length of a meter in wavelengths of light. He conducted experiments throughout Europe and the United States, as well as many others. This won himself and the Survey international recognition.
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Author of Popular Science Monthly Magazine's paper titled "How to Make Our Ideas Clear", which is to this day known as the beginning of publications defining the philosophy of pragmatism, which is the idea that words and thoughts are tools for prediction and problem solving, while rejecting functions of thought describe or mirror reality.
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While still working with the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey parties, Charles held lectures at Johns Hopkins University. Though he made contributions to mathematical logic, he wanted to focus on the logic of science. His goal was to establish abduction, induction, and deduction as methods of reasoning.
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