Expediting Inquiry: Peirce's Social Economy of Research

Haack begins with an exposition of Peirce's work on what he calls "the economy of research" (§1); then locates this work on the much larger map of his ideas about the factors that advance inquiry, and those that impede or block it (§2); suggests how all this relates to his ideas about the intergenerational community of inquirers (§3); and finally turns to the relevance of these ideas to the state of universities today (§4). Quoting Peirce's observation that his account of the economy of research "rests on the supposition that the object of investigation is the ascertainment of truth," but that "when an investigation is made [instead] for the purpose of attaining personal distinction, the economics of the problem are entirely different," Haack argues that this helps us understand why the present incentive structure of universities—which discourages serious intellectual work and encourages self-promotion—is so perverse.