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Philosopher

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Charles Sanders Peirce

1839–1914 · Pragmatism · Modern

Charles Sanders Peirce was an American logician, scientist and philosopher, founder of pragmatism and of modern semiotics, the study of signs. His pragmatic maxim says the meaning of a concept lies in its conceivable practical effects. In 'The Fixation of Belief' he compared four ways of settling doubt, namely tenacity, authority, a priori reasoning and science, and argued only science corrects itself.

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He held fallibilism: any belief may be wrong. He named abduction, inference to a hypothesis, alongside deduction and induction. He died poor and largely unpublished; William James made pragmatism famous.

Two well attested cards in his own English.

Start here

'The Fixation of Belief', Popular Science Monthly, 1877.

Short and a perfect critical-thinking text.

Quotations

“Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have. Then, our conception of these effects is the whole of our conception of the object.”

Charles Sanders Peirce · Pragmatism

knowledgemeaning
Well attested
Meaning & application

Key ideas

  • Pragmatic maxim

    Meaning lies in conceivable practical effects.

  • Fallibilism

    Any belief might be wrong; inquiry corrects.

  • Abduction

    Guessing the best hypothesis is a kind of inference.

Major works

  • The Fixation of Belief (1877)

    Four methods.

  • How to Make Our Ideas Clear (1878)

    Pragmatic maxim.

Influences

Influenced

Common misreadings

  • Pragmatism is not 'whatever works for me is true'. He renamed his view 'pragmaticism' to escape that reading.
  • Practical effects means experimental consequences, not usefulness.

Famous lines Charles Sanders Peirce never said

None of the lines this library files for Charles Sanders Peirce is marked Questionable or Misattributed. That is only a fact about these cards. It is not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

FAQ

What is the best book to start with?

'The Fixation of Belief', Popular Science Monthly, 1877. Short and a perfect critical-thinking text.

What is the most famous quote?

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Charles Sanders Peirce that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Do not block the way of inquiry.” ('F.R.L.' [First Rule of Logic], c. 1899; Collected Papers 1.135–136, Well attested).

What is the most misquoted line?

None of the lines this library files for Charles Sanders Peirce is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Pragmatic maxim: Meaning lies in conceivable practical effects.