Peirce as a Writer

The paradox at the center of this essay is that a writer who was at war with literature can provide important insights into distinctive features of literary discourse. He can do so not only despite but because of what, and especially how, he wrote. C. S. Peirce proclaimed, “I am not in the least degree literary.” His writings offer unmistakable evidence of a more complex relationship between this author and one of his bêtes noires—the literary mind. My purpose is to focus on this complexity, thereby disclosing unappreciated facets of Peirce’s authorship and, more generally, important links between inquiry and writing.