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Chance, Love, and Logic: Philosophical Essays
Chance, Love, and Logic contains two books by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) which are among his most important and widely influential. The first is Illustrations of the Logic of Science . The opening chapters, “The Fixation of Belief” and “How to Make Our Ideas Clear,” mark the beginning of pragmatism. The second presents Peirce’s innovative and influential essays on scientific metaphysics.
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1923
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About the author
Charles Sanders Peirce
204 books191 followersCharles Sanders Peirce (/ˈpɜrs/, like "purse", September 10, 1839 – April 19, 1914) was an American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist, sometimes known as "the father of pragmatism". He was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years. Today he is appreciated largely for his contributions to logic, mathematics, philosophy, scientific methodology, and semiotics, and for his founding of pragmatism.
In 1934, the philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce "the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician". Webster's Biographical Dictionary said in 1943 that Peirce was "now regarded as the most original thinker and greatest logician of his time."
An innovator in mathematics, statistics, philosophy, research methodology, and various sciences, Peirce considered himself, first and foremost, a logician. He made major contributions to logic, but logic for him encompassed much of that which is now called epistemology and philosophy of science. He saw logic as the formal branch of semiotics, of which he is a founder. As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits; the same idea was used decades later to produce digital computers.
Bertrand Russell (1959) wrote, "Beyond doubt [...] he was one of the most original minds of the later nineteenth century, and certainly the greatest American thinker ever." Alfred North Whitehead, while reading some of Peirce's unpublished manuscripts soon after arriving at Harvard in 1924, was struck by how Peirce had anticipated his own "process" thinking. Karl Popper viewed Peirce as "one of the greatest philosophers of all times". Yet Peirce's achievements were not immediately recognized. His imposing contemporaries William James and Josiah Royce admired him, and Cassius Jackson Keyser at Columbia and C. K. Ogden wrote about Peirce with respect, but to no immediate effect.
The first scholar to give Peirce his considered professional attention was Royce's student Morris Raphael Cohen, the editor of an anthology of Peirce's writings titled Chance, Love, and Logic (1923) and the author of the first bibliography of Peirce's scattered writings. John Dewey studied under Peirce at Johns Hopkins and, from 1916 onwards, Dewey's writings repeatedly mention Peirce with deference. His 1938 Logic: The Theory of Inquiry is much influenced by Peirce. The publication of the first six volumes of the Collected Papers (1931–35), the most important event to date in Peirce studies and one that Cohen made possible by raising the needed funds, did not prompt an outpouring of secondary studies. The editors of those volumes, Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, did not become Peirce specialists. Early landmarks of the secondary literature include the monographs by Buchler (1939), Feibleman (1946), and Goudge (1950), the 1941 Ph.D. thesis by Arthur W. Burks (who went on to edit volumes 7 and 8), and the studies edited by Wiener and Young (1952). The Charles S. Peirce Society was founded in 1946. Its Transactions, an academic quarterly specializing in Peirce, pragmatism, and American philosophy, has appeared since 1965.
Peirce has gained a significant international following, marked by university research centers devoted to Peirce studies and pragmatism in Brazil (CeneP/CIEP), Finland (HPRC, including Commens), Germany (Wirth's group, Hoffman's and Otte's group, and Deuser's and Härle's group), France (L'I.R.S.C.E.), Spain (GEP), and Italy (CSP). His writings have been translated into several languages, including German, French, Finnish, Spanish, and Swedish. Since 1950, there have been French, Italian, Spanish, British, and Brazilian Peirceans of note.
In 1934, the philosopher Paul Weiss called Peirce "the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician". Webster's Biographical Dictionary said in 1943 that Peirce was "now regarded as the most original thinker and greatest logician of his time."
An innovator in mathematics, statistics, philosophy, research methodology, and various sciences, Peirce considered himself, first and foremost, a logician. He made major contributions to logic, but logic for him encompassed much of that which is now called epistemology and philosophy of science. He saw logic as the formal branch of semiotics, of which he is a founder. As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits; the same idea was used decades later to produce digital computers.
Bertrand Russell (1959) wrote, "Beyond doubt [...] he was one of the most original minds of the later nineteenth century, and certainly the greatest American thinker ever." Alfred North Whitehead, while reading some of Peirce's unpublished manuscripts soon after arriving at Harvard in 1924, was struck by how Peirce had anticipated his own "process" thinking. Karl Popper viewed Peirce as "one of the greatest philosophers of all times". Yet Peirce's achievements were not immediately recognized. His imposing contemporaries William James and Josiah Royce admired him, and Cassius Jackson Keyser at Columbia and C. K. Ogden wrote about Peirce with respect, but to no immediate effect.
The first scholar to give Peirce his considered professional attention was Royce's student Morris Raphael Cohen, the editor of an anthology of Peirce's writings titled Chance, Love, and Logic (1923) and the author of the first bibliography of Peirce's scattered writings. John Dewey studied under Peirce at Johns Hopkins and, from 1916 onwards, Dewey's writings repeatedly mention Peirce with deference. His 1938 Logic: The Theory of Inquiry is much influenced by Peirce. The publication of the first six volumes of the Collected Papers (1931–35), the most important event to date in Peirce studies and one that Cohen made possible by raising the needed funds, did not prompt an outpouring of secondary studies. The editors of those volumes, Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, did not become Peirce specialists. Early landmarks of the secondary literature include the monographs by Buchler (1939), Feibleman (1946), and Goudge (1950), the 1941 Ph.D. thesis by Arthur W. Burks (who went on to edit volumes 7 and 8), and the studies edited by Wiener and Young (1952). The Charles S. Peirce Society was founded in 1946. Its Transactions, an academic quarterly specializing in Peirce, pragmatism, and American philosophy, has appeared since 1965.
Peirce has gained a significant international following, marked by university research centers devoted to Peirce studies and pragmatism in Brazil (CeneP/CIEP), Finland (HPRC, including Commens), Germany (Wirth's group, Hoffman's and Otte's group, and Deuser's and Härle's group), France (L'I.R.S.C.E.), Spain (GEP), and Italy (CSP). His writings have been translated into several languages, including German, French, Finnish, Spanish, and Swedish. Since 1950, there have been French, Italian, Spanish, British, and Brazilian Peirceans of note.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 10, 2011
More of an exclamation than a review: Peirce is one of the most captivating thinkers I've ever read, and this set of essays, his most accessible and stirring I know. A philosopher for the non-philosophers. I can't help but thinking that I am only beginning to grasp what his work could do for me, personally and intellectually. I love that Peirce puts, well, "chance, love, and logic," or chaos, ethics, and reason into the same world system (and I use "system" in the late nineteenth sense that Peirce would have used it: a vague but understandable worldview that predates all the problems of over-precise systems and ugly utilitarianism that has clouded pragmatism since early twentieth-century positivism). His pragmatism gives hope that an unpredictable life can still be reasoned and wholesome. Even better, unlike many minds I can't hope to understand, some small part of Peirce rubs off every time I read him. His is a world that we can understand: It may not be precise, it may not be perfect, but, wait a second, that sounds a lot like the world I live in: vague and uncertain, knowable and beautiful. (As a bonus, my copy, rather wonderfully, has misprinted "The Fixation of Belief" as "the Taxation of Belief." Here's to imperfection!) I will return to these essays often. Keep this book close.
December 16, 2008
Peirce founds the uniquely American philosophical school Pragmatism, in which Theory and Practice are united, and which later has a usually unacknowledged or unrecognized impact on non-Americans such as Heidegger and Wittgenstein.
September 12, 2023
Pragmatism as theory of meaning. Part 1 is good on science, logic, probability. Part 2 is speculative metaphysics.
January 14, 2025
Peirce is a distinctive thinker, he’s pioneered the use of logic as metaphysics, and metaphysics as logic, which has important implications both for science and philosophy. This collection presents the essence of his method, read it thoroughly
October 3, 2021
Chance, Love and Logic by Charles Peirce is an interesting book assembled from various essays spanning the years 1877-1893.
I got stalled for three months reading the essay, Man’s Glassy Essence, for two reasons: First, I moved into a new home, secondly there was much talk of physics and the math was over my head and so I simply had to find other clues to see if I could accept his major points.
All in all, the book gave good examples (though this was not its intention) of the difference between the pragmatisim of Peirce and William James. It also demonstrates why Peirce stopped using the word pragmatisim as James hijacked it. He stared using the term “pragmaticism” hoping to differentiate the ideas. James emphasized the need for utilitarianism, action, and will whereas Peirce emphasized “realism” and its close cousin “truth” and shows how they simply demonstrate utility, action, and will.
I got stalled for three months reading the essay, Man’s Glassy Essence, for two reasons: First, I moved into a new home, secondly there was much talk of physics and the math was over my head and so I simply had to find other clues to see if I could accept his major points.
All in all, the book gave good examples (though this was not its intention) of the difference between the pragmatisim of Peirce and William James. It also demonstrates why Peirce stopped using the word pragmatisim as James hijacked it. He stared using the term “pragmaticism” hoping to differentiate the ideas. James emphasized the need for utilitarianism, action, and will whereas Peirce emphasized “realism” and its close cousin “truth” and shows how they simply demonstrate utility, action, and will.
July 8, 2022
I admit I skimmed the math and physics. I was interested in his logic as I knew he influenced William James. This book has ideas on many subjects including the mind (biology). The rules of physics were more mathematically advanced than anything in the area of biology so he was suggesting similar rules. I was laughing reading about muscle slime, nerve slime, and protoplasm taking nutrients based on the 'velocity' of the chemicals. I also imagine a lot of current science will be laughable in the future. Venn, of the diagrams, and Boole, of the logic, are contemporaries. Peirce (pronounced Purse per one website) had strong opinions about many things but always tried to be logical. I read Wittgenstein was influenced by Peirce!?!
December 31, 2024
For me personally, the great take away from Peirce is his description of that third formal inference type known as abduction, retroduction or hypothesis; deriving a conclusion from a specific set of special or interesting facts and circumstances; the way we actually navigate the world (and make decisions in medicine), instead of the sterile deductive method, which is non ampliative (contains no new information), or induction (which produces ever falsifiable results). On the subject be sure to also check out: The Sign of Three: Dupin, Holmes, Peirce.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews