Synopses & Reviews
Science, material, idealism, pragmaticism, history of scientific thought. With Buchler's book, best way to approach notoriously cryptic philosopher. Features 24 selections including "The Place of Our Age in the History of Civilization," "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man," "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities," and "The Fixation of Belief."
Synopsis
Charles S. Peirce in the opinion of many authorities was the most profound and original philosopher that America has produced. A master of exact science, our foremost logician, the founder of pragmatism, Peirce was one of the most remarkable and versatile minds of the 19th century, whose scattered writings made important contributions to such varied fields of logic, mathematics, geodesy, religion, astronomy, chemistry, physics, psychology, history of science, metaphysics, education, semeiotics, and more. Considered by William James the most original thinker of their generation, he exerted a tremendous influence on James, Josiah Royce, John Dewey, C. I. Lewis, Ernst Schroder, among many others.
Professor Wiener's well-balanced selections introduce the reader to the many sides of Peirce's thought. He presents such famous essays as "The Fixation of Belief," "How to Make Our Ideas Clear," "The Architecture of Theories," and others, along with several pieces that are not available elsewhere. Of particular interest today, when the problem of humanizing the sciences is the acute problem of our age, there are certain selections, previously neglected by students and editors of Peirce's work, which deal with the cultural or humanistic aspects of science and philosophy.
The 24 selections in this book are organized into five categories: science, materialism, and idealism; pragmatism (or as Peirce preferred, pragmaticism); the history of scientific thought; science and education; and science and religion. Included are articles originally published in North American Review, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, The Monist, Popular Science Monthly, and Educational Review; extracts or transcriptions of speeches; book reviews; letters; and previously unpublished manuscripts from the Smithsonian Institution, the Lowell Institute, and the Widener Library Archives in Harvard University, Professor Wiener's excellent introduction and prefaces to the selections supply the reader with important historical and analytical background material."
Synopsis
Science, material, idealism, pragmaticism, history of scientific thought. With Buchler's book, best way to approach notoriously cryptic philosopher. Features 24 selections including "The Place of Our Age in the History of Civilization," "Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man," "Some Consequences of Four Incapacities," and "The Fixation of Belief."
Synopsis
Science, material, idealism, pragmaticism, history of scientific thought. With Buchler's book, best way to approach notoriously cryptic philosopher. Features 24 selections including "The Place of Our Age in the History of Civilization."
Table of Contents
Introduction
"Science, Materialism and Idealism"
1. The Place of Our Age in the History of Civilization
2. Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man
3. Some Consequences of Four Incapacities
4. Critical Review of Berkeley's Idealism
Pragmaticism: A Philosophy of Science
5. The Fixation of Belief
6. How to Make Our Ideas Clear
7. Notes on Positivism
8. The Architecture of Theories
9. The Doctrine of Necessity
10. What Pragmatism Is
11. Issues of Pragmaticism
Lessons from the History of Scientific Thought
12. Lessons of the History of Science
13. Lowell Lectures on the History of Science (1892)
14. Kepler
15. Conclusion of the History of Science Lectures
16. The Nineteenth Century: Notes
17. The Century's Great Men in Science
18. "Letters to Samuel P. Langley, and "Hume on Miracles and Laws of Nature"
19. Research and Teaching in Physics
20. Definition and Function of a University
21. Logic and a Liberal Education
22. Logic of Mathematics in Relation to Education
Science and Religion
23. Science and Immortality
The Breakdown of the Mechanical Philosophy
The Marriage of Religion and Science
What Is Christian Faith?
A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God
24. Letters to Lady Welby
Bibliographical Note
Index