Publication date:
15 October 2018Length of book:
184 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksISBN-13: 9781498531504
Charles Sanders Peirce is one of the most original voices in American philosophy. His scientific career and his goal of proving scientific logic provide rich material for philosophical development. Peirce was also a life-long Christian and member of the Episcopal Church. Roger Ward traces the impact of Peirce’s religion and Christianity on the development of Peirce’s philosophy. Peirce’s religious framework is a key to his development of pragmatism and normative science in terms of knowledge and moral transformation. Peirce’s argument for the reality of God is a culmination of both his religious devotion and his life-long philosophical development.
C. S. Peirce (1839–1914) is widely known among philosophers as an important, if idiosyncratic, logician. In this book Ward (Georgetown College) argues that Peirce is a religious philosopher and that his life's work was guided by his theological views. Ward proceeds both systematically through Peirce's work and biographically through the philosopher's life. Ward contends that Peirce saw religion and science (including especially logic) not as rivals or contraries, as many might expect, but as working in tandem to produce an understanding of reality. According to the author, this view of science and religion can be found in all of Peirce's work and indeed provides an interpretative key to it. Moreover, Ward suggests that this view of Peirce and his work offers a new way to look at American philosophy.
Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, faculty.
Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduate students, researchers, faculty.