Pierce Charles Sanders - the founder of pragmatism and semiotics: biography, major works

Pierce Charles Sanders is an American philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist, whom some call the "father of pragmatism." He was educated chemist and worked as a scientist for 30 years. He is appreciated for his enormous contribution to logic, mathematics, philosophy and semiotics. Also, the American scientist is popular with the fact that he put forward the main provisions of the philosophical current - pragmatism.

Confession

Charles Pierce is an innovator in mathematics, statistics, philosophy, and also in some methodologies of research of various sciences. Pierce considered himself first and foremost a logician. He made a great contribution to this science. Along with this, logic opened the way for new discoveries and conclusions. He saw logic as a formal branch of semiotics, the founder of which became. In addition, Charles Pearce defined the concepts of abductive reasoning, as well as strictly formulated mathematical induction and deductive reasoning. Already in 1886 he saw that logical operations can be performed by electrical switching circuits. The same idea was used decades later for the production of digital computers.

What is pragmatism?

Pragmatism is a philosophical trend that originated in the United States of America in the 1870s. Pragmatism views thought as a tool for predicting and solving problems and actions, and also rejects the idea that the human function of thought is connected with metaphysics and similar abstract things, like parallel reality and the influence of higher intelligence on fate. Pragmatists argue that the truth is only that which yields practical, useful results. The pragmatism of Charles Pierce describes the "changing universe", while the idealists, realists and Thomists (followers of Catholic thought) hold the opinion of an "unchanging universe". Pragmatism is a philosophy that contradicts all attempts to explain metaphysics and redefines some truth of a certain direction into a temporary consensus between people in the field under investigation.

What is semiotics?

Semiotics is the study of the meaning of signaling processes. This includes the study of the signs of semiotic processes, their designation, designation, similarity, analogy, allegory, metaphor and symbolism. This science explores the study of signs and symbols as part of communications. Unlike linguistics, semiotics also studies non-linguistic systems of signs.

Semiotics of Professor Charles S. Pierce

The semiotics of Charles Pierce highlights a number of key concepts (concepts of signs, their meanings and sign relations). He was well aware that this area of research should be a single science - semiotics. Therefore, Pierce defined the basic concepts of semiotics, here is its classification:

• Signs-icons: pictorial signs, in which a significant and signifying object have a single semantic validity. As an example, you can bring a warning sign "cautiously: children", which shows running children. This road sign encourages a decrease in speed on the road and is installed near general education schools, kindergartens, youth sports sections (or creative), etc.
• Signs-indices: signified and signifying objects (or actions) are related to each other as distance in time or space. For example, you can point to the road signs that give the traveler information about the name, direction and distance to the next village. Also, the pictorial signs that illustrate, say, frowning eyebrows - are considered a sign-index, because here the emotional background of a person (in this case - anger) is transmitted.
• Symbols-symbols: the signified and the signify are of a single character under the prism of a certain convection (we are talking about a preliminary convention). Here, for example, you can use a road sign that illustrates an "inverted" triangle. The transmitted meaning of the sign is "give way", but its designation is not related to the stimulating action, because it's just an inverted triangle. Under the same prism, national symbols come into being, where the depicted object is rhetorical for all. Symbols can be all words from existing languages, however, the word-imitation (such as "croak," "meow", "grunt", "tarahtet" and the like) fall into the list of exceptions.

Charles Pierce: Biography

Born September 10 in 1839 in Cambridge (Massachusetts) in the family of the famous American mathematician and astronomer Benjamin Pearce. Charles led an early privileged life: parents refused to discipline and educate their children because of fear to suppress their individuality. In addition, the academic and intellectual atmosphere of the family home, which was often visited by highly spiritual and important dignitaries, did not allow Pierce to choose a different path from the scientific one. Among the guests were often outstanding mathematicians and scientists, poets, lawyers and politicians. In this environment, young Charles Pierce managed to maintain comfort and interest.

Pierce was the second of five children in the family. He had four talented brothers who also partially linked their lives with science and high ranks. James Mills Pierce (elder brother) followed his father to Harvard University, where he began in-depth study of mathematics.

Another brother, Herbert Henry Pierce, made an outstanding career in the Intelligence Service of Foreign Affairs. The younger brother, Benjamin Mills Pierce, studied for an engineer and had success in this field, but he died young. The talent of the brothers, especially Charles, is largely due to the colossal intelligence and influence of their father, as well as to the general vital intellectual atmosphere that surrounded them all the time.

Charles Pierce: books, scientific works

The popularity and reputation of Pierce largely relies on his series of scientific papers published in American scientific journals. His works were reviewed in the "American Academy of Arts and Sciences", in the "National Academy of Sciences" in the journal of speculative philosophy Popular Science Monthly. The scientific works of Charles Pierce Sanders on mathematics and philosophy are divided into two stages: published during life and after death.

Pierce's books during his lifetime

• The book "Photometric Research" in 1878. 181-page monograph on the application of spectrographic methods of astronomy.
• The book "Research in the field of logic at the Johns Hopkins Institute" 1883. Collection of scientific works of graduate students and doctors, including Charles Pierce himself, in the field of logic.

Major posthumous publications

Harvard University received from Pier's wife a lot of documents after his death (1914). In his office found about 1650 unpublished manuscripts in total for 100 thousand pages. The first published anthology of Pierce's articles was a one-volume book titled "Chance, Love and Logic: A Philosophical Essay." The work was replicated under the editorship of Morris Rafael Cohen in 1923. Later, other anthologies began to appear, whose publications were in 1940, 1957, 1958, 1972, 1994 and 2009.

Most of Pierce's manuscripts have already been published, but there are some copies that the light does not know due to the unsatisfactory state of the documents.

• 1931-58: "Collection of articles by Charles Pierce Sanders" in 8 volumes. Here all his works are collected in the period from 1860 to 1913. However, the most extensive and fruitful work begins in 1893. Initially, the articles were not structured and varied in size, so for a more correct look, the editor's hand was required. From the first to the sixth volume, edited by Charles Hartshorne, and the seventh and eighth by Arthur Burke.
• 1975-87: "Charles Sanders Pierce: Contribution to the Nation" - 4 volumes. This collection includes more than 300 reviews and articles by Pierce, which were partially published during his life from 1869 to 1908. The collection of scientific papers was published under the editorship of Kenneth Lane Keener and James Edward Cook.
• 1976 - present: "New Elements of Mathematics by Charles S. Pierce" - 5 volumes. Here are published the most productive work of Pierce in the field of mathematics. Editorial - Carolyn Eisele. The status of the project does not remain "in development".
• 1977 - present: "Correspondence between CS Pearce and Victoria Welby from 1903 to 1912".
• 1982 - present: "The Writings of Charles S. Pierce - Chronological Edition". The first publication of the project was in 2010, but the work continues to this day. The first published 6 volumes cover the life of the scientist in the period from 1859 to 1889.
• 1985 - present: "History of the Persian Science Perspective: The History of Science" - 2 volumes. Edited by Carolyn Eisele.
• 1992 - present: "Reasoning about the logic of things" - lectures of Professor Pierce for the year 1898. Edition: Kenneth Lane Kinner with comments by Hilary Putnam.
• 1992-98: Essential Peirce - 2 volumes. Important examples of the philosophical works of Charles Pierce. Edited by Nathan Hauser (1st volume) and Christian Closel (2nd volume).
• 1997 - present: "Pragmatism as a principle and method of correct thinking". A collection of Pierce's lectures on pragmatism at Harvard University in the form of a short educational publication. Edition: Patricia Anne of Turísi.
• 2010 - present: "Philosophy of Mathematics: Selected Works". Exclusive, previously not published anywhere, Pierce's work in mathematics. Edition: Matthew Moore.

The contribution of the great scientist to science

Charles S. Pierce made a series of startling discoveries in formal logic, fundamental mathematics. Also, the American scientist is the founder of pragmatism and semiotics. Most of his scientific works were highly appreciated only after his death. The scientist died on April 19 in 1914.