Charles Sanders Peirce: Biography and Contributions

Charles Sanders Peirce , Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA) in 1839, he was a philosopher and scientist and author of several works with great impact to this day. He is considered as the creator of philosophical pragmatism and as one of the pioneers in the development of semiotics.

Apart from his works on these subjects, he also made several scientific experiments on the pendulum in order to find the density of the Earth and its shape. Similarly, he published a large number of articles on physics, mathematics, chemistry and other sciences.

Sanders Peirce gave classes and university talks for many years. However, his peculiar and problematic personality prevented him from obtaining the fixed position he always intended. Apparently, the scandal that produced his second marriage to a much younger woman did not help him for that purpose.

Much of his life he lived with enormous economic hardship, retired in a small town. As a curiosity, part of their work signed them as Charles Santiago Peirce. It is unknown if it was as a tribute to his friend William Jame or as a concession to his second wife, of Spanish origin.

Biography of Charles Sanders

First years

Charles Sanders Peirce came to the world on September 10, 1839, in the American city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. His family was well known in Boston in political, social and, especially, intellectual spheres. Therefore, the environment in which the young Peirce grew was full of scientific and philosophical stimuli.

His own father was a professor at Harvard and had a lot of prestige as an astronomer and mathematician. From a very young age, Charles received classes in physics, astronomy and mathematics, taught by his father.

At the age of 8 he also started to take chemistry classes and at 11 he got to write a paper explaining the history of that subject. In adolescence he devoted himself to deepening in philosophy and logic, reading the works of great authors.

Education

Despite his great intelligence and all the preparation he received at home, Peirce had many problems at school. The teachers complained about their lack of discipline and interest. His erratic behavior and inability to behave in conventional situations was a fixed feature throughout his life.

In any case, Peirce joined Harvard in 1855. In 1961 he obtained his degree in Arts and, two years later, in Sciences. At the same time, he began working in the United States coastal service.

Professional life

Peirce's great goal was to get a chair at the university to teach logic classes. However, all he got were temporary positions. His personality, which some describe as manic-depressive, prevented him from achieving success as a teacher.

Thus, between 1864 and 1884 he taught logic at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and Harvard, but never as a professor.

United Coast and Geodetic Survey

The influence of his father, superintendent in the United Coast and Geodetic Survey, helped him to start working in that institution. He was in this from 1865 to 1891 and developed important research on the severity and intensity of starlight.

Among his achievements is the invention of the quincunal projection of the sphere, as well as being the first to use a wavelength of light as a measure.

Taking advantage of these investigations, Peirce traveled to Europe, where he acquired considerable professional prestige and was appointed member of organizations such as the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1867 or the National Academy of Sciences in 1877.

These successes did not mean that his character improved. His years in the Coast Survey were peppered with many incidents. In the end, after decades of work in this, he was forced to resign in 1891.

Personal life

Peirce married for the first time in 1863, when he was 24 years old. The union lasted until 1876, year in which he divorced after a trip to Europe. A few years later he remarried, this time with Juliette, a woman twenty-seven years younger than him and nobody knew anything about. This caused a small scandal at the time.

When he lost his job in the Geodetic Survey, Peirce and his wife moved to Milford, Pennsylvania. The couple lived there for 27 years, in which they spent a lot of economic problems. Despite the huge amount of material produced by the author, he rarely managed to get it published.

Necessity forced him to accept all kinds of minor assignments, in addition to having to give lectures throughout the country.

Last years

The health of Peirce and his wife began to deteriorate. The lack of resources made them live in quite bad conditions. Despite this, the philosopher continued to lead a wasteful and reckless lifestyle, with risky investments that only worsened his situation.

Trying to solve his problems, Peirce asked the Carnegie Institution for a grant to write what he called the philosophical work of his life. There were 36 works of unquestionable value, but they did not receive the support of the institution.

In 1914, cancer patient, Charles Peirce died without leaving descendants. His intellectual minister was about 80,000 pages of manuscripts, many of them unpublished. His widow sold them to Harvard University that same year.

Contributions

As mentioned, his work is very broad and covers many different disciplines. Thus, he wrote about philosophy, semiotics, various scientific branches and about some other topics.

Philosophical pragmatism

Peirce is considered the father of this philosophical current. The origin of the term"pragmatism"was introduced by Peirce himself during the meetings held by the so-called Club of Metaphysics in Cambridge. Scientists and philosophers participated in this club, including William James.

The fundamental principle of this concept is that it is the practical consequences that determine the meaning of beliefs and thoughts. Peirce accused James of having oversimplified pragmatism by excluding the logical-semiotic foundation that he himself had established.

In short, pragmatism maintains the thesis that the practical relevance of anything is what determines its meaning.

This philosophical current is considered to be the most important American contribution to the subject during the 20th century. His influence reached Europe.

Contributions in science

In the scientific field, Peirce also made important contributions. In these, he placed great emphasis on the community and social character of science.

Some of his most outstanding works were his experiments on the pendulum, trying to calculate the shape and density of our planet. Also, his studies on light waves and their length stand out.

Other studies he did focused on physical, optical and mathematical problems, among other topics.

Semiotics

Given the great importance of the author in the study of semiotics, is considered one of the parents of the discipline. Its main contribution is that the signs, the words, are not only what we use to designate any object or idea, but are"what, when we know it, it makes us know something else".

In contrast to Saussure's classical theory, Peirce focuses on general aspects of language, defined as the way in which the human being knows reality. Through language, man relates to the world.

In his own words, the author defines the sign as"something that is for someone instead of something else, its object, in some of its aspects. Or something that creates in the mind of that person a more developed sign, which is its interpretant". That is, it is what is used to create a mental representation with which real objects are known.

Conception of the sign as a triad

According to Peirce's theory, both the sign and reality are composed of three different parts: the object, the representative and the interpretant.

- The object would be a part of the reality to which the human being accesses through the sign.

- The representative would be the representation of that object, the sign in question with which we access the real world. In the words of Peirce, it would be"the aspects of the object that we can come to know".

- The interpretant is related to individual and collective experiences. When using a sign, the mental interpretation is different depending on our previous knowledge. For example, everyone knows what a"bird"is, but upon hearing the word everyone will reproduce a different type of bird in their mind.

Another novel aspect in his work on semiotics is to consider knowledge as something that creates a series of inferences. Thus, upon seeing ash, the observer deduces that something has been burned. In short, Peirce affirms that the world can only be known through signs.

Icons, indexes and symbols

Pierce also elaborated a classification of the signs depending on their relation with the objects:

Icons

There is a direct relationship with objects. For example, maps or figurative painting.

Indices

It gives continuity indications about the reality of the objects represented. For example, a ray is the index of a storm.

Symbols

The meaning of the symbols is not direct, but reusable of social conventions. Thus, the shields or words in general are symbols to which it has been endowed with a meaning.

References

1. Koval, Santiago. The sign according to Charles Sanders Peirce. Retrieved from santiagokoval.com
2. Barrena, Sara; Nubiola, Jaime. Charles Sanders Peirce. Retrieved from philosophica.info
3. Pupo Pupo, Rigoberto. Charles Sanders Peirce: Pragmatism and semiotics. Retrieved from letras-uruguay.espaciolatino.com
4. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. Charles Sanders Peirce. Retrieved from britannica.com
5. Burch, Robert. Charles Sanders Peirce. Retrieved from plato.stanford.edu
6. Beckman, Tad. An Outline of Charles Sanders Peirce's Life. Retrieved from pages.hmc.edu
7. Mastin, L. Charles Sanders Peirce. Retrieved from philosophybasics.com
8. Halton, Eugene. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914). Retrieved from nd.edu