Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life

by Joseph Brent

Charles Sanders Peirce was born in September 1839 and died five months before the guns of August 1914. He is perhaps the most important mind the United States has ever produced. He made significant contributions throughout his life as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, geodesist, surveyor, cartographer, metrologist, engineer, and inventor. He was a psychologist, a philologist, a lexicographer, a historian of science, a lifelong student of medicine, and, above all, a philosopher, whose special fields were logic and semiotics. He is widely credited with being the founder of pragmatism. In terms of his importance as a philosopher and a scientist, he has been compared to Plato and Aristotle. He himself intended "to make a philosophy like that of Aristotle." Peirce was also a tormented and in many ways tragic figure. He suffered throughout his life from various ailments, including a painful facial neuralgia, and had wide swings of mood which frequently left him depressed to the state of inertia, and other times found him explosively violent. Despite his consistent belief that ideas could find meaning only if they "worked" in the world, he himself found it almost impossible to make satisfactory economic and social arrangements for himself. This brilliant scientist, this great philosopher, this astounding polymath was never able, throughout his long life, to find an academic post that would allow him to pursue his major interest, the study of logic, and thus also fulfill his destiny as America's greatest philosopher. Much of his work remained unpublished in his own time, and is only now finding publication in a coherent, chronologically organized edition. Even more astounding is that,despite many monographic studies, there has been no biography until now, almost eighty years after his death. Brent has studied the Peirce papers in detail and enriches his account with numerous quotations from letters by Peirce and by his friends.
In this edition Brent refines his interpretation of Peirce's thought and character based on new research, and has added a glossary and a detailed chronology.
"Brent ...has given us a full and compelling account of Peirce's troubled career and a wealth of persuasive arguments and plausible inferences (what Peirce called 'abductions') to help explain it." - "Science".
"Joseph Brent's splendid biography of Charles S. Peirce (1839ETH1914) dispels much of the mystery that has surrounded the difficult life and career of America's greatest philosopher." - "American Historical Review"
"This outstanding book, the first full-scale biography of Peirce, illuminates both Peirce's life and his philosophy." - "Library Journal".
" ...an extraordinary, inspiring portrait of the largely forgotten Peirce, a progenitor of modern thought who devised a realist metaphysics and attempted to achieve direct knowledge of God by applying the logic of science." - "Publishers Weekly".
" ...a forceful and beautifully written account of the life and work of Peirce ...places the demonic aspects of Peirce's personality in their proper social and psychological contexts." - "Semiotica".
"Brent's book is a great example of biographical writing. The final essay, "The Wasp in the Bottle," is astonishingly good, a masterpiece." - "Charles Hartshorne".

Genres: Biography, Philosophy, Nonfiction, History

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Anthony DeFalco · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very revealing book of the brilliant and difficult life of Charles Sanders Peirce. It gives one insight into the intellectual development of Peirce, and what he had to deal with and the price he paid for his views. It was both moving and sad to see such talent wasted.

[Jay Beasley · Rating 4 out of 5]

why don't we study this guy in school?

[Sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charles Sanders Peirce, the polymathic American philosopher and developer both of Pragmatism (some debate on this: William James himself credits Peirce, as does CSP himself, but there are those who believe "the modern movement known as Pragmatism is largely the result of James's misunderstanding of Peirce" [such us Ralph Barton Perry]) and semiotics is felt by many to be perhaps the closest thing to an Aristotle that this continent and/or this modern world ever produced and perhaps its last true polymath.

Though he tends now to be discussed only in the context of either Pragmatism or Semiotics*+, Peirce made, in his time, rather significant contributions as a mathematician, astronomer, chemist, geodesist, surveyor, cartographer, metrologist, engineer, lexicographer, philologist, and experimental psychologist (considered the first).

All the more surprising, then, that Joseph Brent's biography is but the first comprehensive study of Peirce and his entire system of thought, too that it was written by an intellectual historian, not a philosopher or semiotician. Brent's study--originally written as a dissertation--manages to be extraordinarily well-written and compelling without erring toward over-laudatory or unquestioning abstraction and summary, difficult as Peirce's story would make that. His analysis of Peirce's public and private troubles verges on artful, though it be the handful of pressing, unanswered questions unresolved by any surviving literature or account which perhaps best evoke the drama, scale and minor tragedy of Peirce's life.

Where this book may be a bit too deep a dive for one without any prior introduction to Peirce, Louis Menand's Pulitzer Prize-winning Metaphysical Club would undoubtedly prove ideal. (This would also be one of the finer introductions to John Dewey, O.W. Holmes, Chauncey Wright or William James.)

*Most significantly for his work toward the latter. One of the foremost logicians of the 19th Century, Peirce's Semiotics is much better conceived than Saussure's.

+It should also be mentioned that his Law of Errors is one of the most beautiful and profound and reaching works of logic and philosophical literature known to man/Sam.

[Barak · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is no doubt the best biography both in accuracy and comprehensiveness written about the polyhistori Charles Sanders Peirce (pronounced as Purse or Pers) who was the best American philosopher and one of the great thinkers of all times.

I found a long time a go that I get thoroughly bored when reading biographies or autobiographies, even of people who were supposedly living a very interesting life. Surprisingly perhaps this book proves the exception and is quite possibly the only book of its kind I've ever read to completion.

This should be partly attributed to the very uncommon and exotic character of Peirce and partly to Brent's power of presentation. I shall not describe here in any sort of detail Peirce' difficult life paralleling his amazingly original and vast intellectual achievements. However, just to give an idea of the scope of his abilities and contribution I shall quote the following from the book:

"Who is the most original and the most versatile intellect that the Americas have so far produced? The answer "Charles S. Peirce" is uncontested, because any second would be so far behind as not to be worth nominating. Mathematician, astronomer, chemist, geodist, surveyor, cartographer, metrologist, spectroscopist, engineer, inventor; psychologist, philologist, lexicographer, historian of science, mathematical economist, lifelong student of medicine; book reviewer, dramatist, actor, short story writer; phenomenologist, semiotician, logician, rhetorician [and] metaphysician... the first known conceiver of the design and theory of an electric switching-circuit computer... He is the only system-building philosopher in the Americas who has been both competent and productive in logic, in mathematics, and in a wide range of sciences..." [Fisch, "Introductory Note," in Sebeok, The Play of Musement, 17])

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a thorough, even-handed biography of a man who has (except in philosophical and semiotic circles) been lost to history, largely due to his ability to fall afoul of conventional 19th century mores, his lack of social skills, and his long battle with trigeminal facial neuralgia--which even now is difficult for its sufferers to manage. Dr. Brent has made Peirce and his work accessible to the layperson, which is no mean feat, and produced a fascinating portrait of a remarkable man. As one reviewer below wrote, "Why don't we study this guy in school?"

(Note: I was given this book when I began working for the Peirce Edition Project in Novemeber 1997; it was probably an ARC. )

[Fernanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's a sad story, but it is true... it is the sad story of the academic world. geniuses always outside

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ultimately I did not find Charles Sanders Peirce particularly interesting. No doubt a brillaint man who I would have enjoyed in conversation, he was unfortunately also a jerk and a totally irresponsible person who did not get up to many interesting endeavors outside of his philosophizing. Not familiar with the history of philosphy or semiotics, I found both the biography itself and especially Peirce's works as quoted to be obscure and often hard to follow, despite their flashes of brilliance.

The highlight, for me, was excerpts from the many rude letters Peirce send to his friends, family, and contemperaries. I was hoping for something more.

[Eddie Callaway · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not an easy read but loaded with information on this underappreciated genius. Read my full Review

[Firdaus Azwar]

the great book i want to read

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Both a pleasure to read and not terribly interesting, in my opinion. Peirce (pronounced "purse") was the son of perhaps the best mathematician in America before the Civil War, and received quite the education from an early age, with visitors such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell Holmes frequenting their Cambridge home. CSP's life story, however, generally just repeats the pattern of failing to hold the trust of everyone around him, needing money, and asking his close friend William James to help out "this strange and unruly being" (as James once referred to him). Still, it's amazing Peirce is so little remembered, since James credited him with the origin of pragmatism.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very detailed biography of Peirce tells the sad story of his life with compassion and insight. Many of Peirce's letters as well as those of others such as William James are presented and give a flavor of the man in his own words. I didn't get as much of an understanding of Peirce's ideas as I had hoped for, but I did feel that I did get to know a very unusual man. I was left intrigued by the question of how a person could be both so enormously creative and so completely self destructive.