Conversations on Peirce:Reals and Ideals

Title Page, Copyright Page

Download PDF (39.8 KB)
pp. i-vi

Contents

Download PDF (31.0 KB)
pp. vii-viii

Preface

Download PDF (39.0 KB)
pp. ix-xii

Carl Hausman was initially my teacher and later my colleague for several years prior to his retirement. Together we have explored the issues in this book in a wide variety of settings. We have co-taught classes on Peirce and American philosophy; we have co-written essays...

Acknowledgments

Download PDF (30.7 KB)
pp. xiii-xiv

Abbreviations

Download PDF (40.2 KB)
pp. xv-xviii

Conversation I Pragmatism, Idealism, Realism

Download PDF (11.5 KB)
pp. 1-2

One Peirce on Berkeley’s Nominalistic Platonism

Download PDF (80.7 KB)
pp. 3-15

The exemplary role that Bishop Berkeley played in Peirce’s conception of pragmatism is suggested by Peirce’s frequent references to Berkeley’s proto-pragmatic practice. ‘‘It was this medium [the river of pragmatism],’’ Peirce said, ‘‘and not tar water, that gave...

Two Who’s a Pragmatist Royce, Dewey, and Peirce at the Turn of the Century

Download PDF (129.7 KB)
pp. 16-43

Ultimately, it may not matter much who is or is not a pragmatist. There are some reasonable political motivations at any given time for wanting or not wanting to be counted as among the pragmatists, depending on whether pragmatism is or is not in vogue. But if we ask...

Three Two Peircean Realisms Some Comments on Margolis

Download PDF (78.3 KB)
pp. 44-57

We turn now from considering Peirce’s realism in relation to the work of his contemporaries to a consideration of a commentary by our contemporary Joseph Margolis, who in recent years has undertaken to bring analytic philosophy and pragmatism into...

Four The Degeneration of Pragmatism Peirce, Dewey, Rorty

Download PDF (85.5 KB)
pp. 58-72

Pragmatism has reached its most recent state of notoriety, for better and worse, through the writings of Richard Rorty, who claimed that he drew his inspiration, in part at least, from William James and, even more emphatically, from John Dewey. Some years...

Conversation II Perception and Inquiry

Download PDF (10.3 KB)
pp. 73-74

Five Peirce’s Dynamical Object Realism as Process Philosophy

Download PDF (118.1 KB)
pp. 75-99

As noted earlier, Peirce’s conception of pragmatism has been interpreted as both a form of objective idealism and a form of realism. Objective idealism, as I understand it, insists that whatever is regarded as real must not only be mind dependent but also constituted...

Six Another Radical Empiricism: Peirce 1903

Download PDF (81.2 KB)
pp. 100-113

In 1904 William James marked his ‘‘radical empiricism’’ by maintaining that I perceive not only individual things but also the relations of conjunction and disjunction in which they appear. ‘‘To be radical,’’ he asserted, ‘‘an empiricism must neither admit into its construction...

Seven Peirce on Interpretation

Download PDF (89.5 KB)
pp. 114-131

In an earlier chapter I examined the metaphysical implications of Peirce’s dynamical or dynamic object; in this chapter I will consider its import for Peirce’s conception of interpretation. Interpretation, for whatever purpose, relates a referent or a dynamic object, that...

Eight Peirce and Pearson The Aims of Inquiry

Download PDF (83.5 KB)
pp. 132-146

Peirce and Karl Pearson, his contemporary and British counterpart in the study of statistics and the logic of inquiry, lived radically different lives. Peirce, having alienated himself from the university communities in which he might have found work, lost his full-time...

Conversation III Cultural Considerations

Download PDF (10.3 KB)
pp. 147-148

Nine The Pragmatic Importance of Peirce’s Religious Writings

Download PDF (91.6 KB)
pp. 149-165

Many scholars come to Peirce’s work from backgrounds in which matters of religion are of little or no interest, and when they encounter Peirce’s religious writings, they see them as an aberration. These writings are interesting or off-putting according to one’s...

Ten Realism and Idealism in Peirce’s Cosmogony

Download PDF (73.9 KB)
pp. 166-177

As we have noted several times, Peirce often described his metaphysics as a kind of ‘‘objective idealism’’ (CP 6.24, 6.163); he believed matter to be ‘‘a specialization of the mind’’ (CP 6.268). Peirce’s testimony is borne out by a number of similarities his writings...

Eleven Love of Nature The Generality of Peircean Concern

Download PDF (76.4 KB)
pp. 178-190

Peirce’s realistic conception of God and, especially, of the love that God is, holds consequences for issues that lie beyond the boundaries of religious discourses. One such consequence has to do with what we have come to call environmentalism. Although he did...

Twelve Developmental Theism A Peircean Response to Fundamentalism

Download PDF (80.5 KB)
pp. 191-204

Having brought matters of heart and mind into relation in chapter 10, I turn here to apply this relation to an issue that that has important political import for contemporary culture. The specific issue I wish to explore—religious fundamentalism—is a complex...

addendum

Download PDF (10.2 KB)
pp. 205-206

Peirce’s Coefficient of the Science of the Method An Early Form of the Correlation Coefficient

Download PDF (171.8 KB)
pp. 207-230

The history of the correlation coefficient is often thought to have begun with Sir Francis Galton. His contribution was notably his realization of the importance of the relationship between two variables for the purpose of describing or predicting some phenomenon. Research...

Notes

Download PDF (77.4 KB)
pp. 231-244

References

Download PDF (55.8 KB)
pp. 245-252

Index

Download PDF (49.5 KB)
pp. 253-256

American Philosophy

Download PDF (33.2 KB)
pp. 257-258