Charles S. Peirce's Evolutionary Philosophy

About this book

This book is a systematic introduction to the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce. It focuses on four of Peirce's fundamental conceptions: pragmatism and Peirce's development of it into what he called "pragmaticism"; his theory of signs; his phenomenology; and his theory that continuity is of prime importance for philosophy. The author argues that at the center of Peirce's philosophical project is a unique form of metaphysical realism, whereby both continuity and evolutionary change are necessary for our understanding of experience. In his final chapter Professor Hausman applies this version of realism to current controversies between anti-realists and anti-idealists. Peirce's views are compared with those of such present-day figures as Davidson, Putnam, and Rorty. The book will be of particular interest to philosophers concerned with classical American philosophy and with the relation of pragmatism to current debates on realism, as well as to linguists working in semiotics.