Semiotics

Pragmatism is America’s most original contribution to the history of philosophy. Born in the late nineteenth century in the wake of the Civil War, amid scientific expansion and industrial transformation, pragmatism refused both European rationalism and British empiricism to propose an alternative: philosophy should be judged by what it does, not by what it contemplates; ideas are instruments of action, not mirrors of reality. This article traces classical pragmatism — Peirce, James, Dewey, Mead — and the neopragmatism of the twentieth century — Rorty, Putnam, Brandom, Misak. ...

Charles Sanders Peirce American logician, mathematician, philosopher, and scientist. Founder of pragmatism and modern semiotics. One of the most original minds in the history of philosophy, though neglected in his lifetime. His work profoundly influenced William James, John Dewey, and the entire analytic and continental tradition of the 20th century. Key Concepts Pragmatism (pragmatic maxim): the meaning of a concept lies in its conceivable practical consequences — “Consider what effects, that might conceivably have practical bearings, we conceive the object of our conception to have” Triadic semiotics: every sign involves three elements — sign (representamen), object, and interpretant; signification is always mediated and relational Icon, index, and symbol: three types of sign-object relation: resemblance (icon), causal/existential connection (index), arbitrary convention (symbol) Fallibilism: no belief is absolutely certain — knowledge is provisional and subject to revision; science advances through self-correction Synechism: continuity is a fundamental category of reality — a critique of atomism and nominalism Universal categories: Firstness (pure quality, possibility), Secondness (reaction, existence), Thirdness (mediation, law, sign) Community of inquirers: truth is the ideal limit toward which the scientific inquiry of an unlimited community of researchers converges Influenced by Kant — categories, transcendental logic Aristotle — logic, categories Hume and Berkeley — British empiricism (critiqued) Charles Darwin — evolutionism applied to thought Influenced William James — popularized pragmatism (modifying Peirce) John Dewey — instrumentalism Wittgenstein and analytic philosophy — language and use Umberto Eco, Roland Barthes — semiotics and text theory Habermas — discourse ethics and community of communication Works Collected Papers (posthumous, 8 vols.); key articles: “The Fixation of Belief” (1877); “How to Make Our Ideas Clear” (1878). ...