Charles Sanders Peirce

High school (ages 12+)
History & Culture

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/charles-sanders-peirce

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. When was Charles Sanders Peirce born?September 10, 1839
2. When did Charles Sanders Peirce die?April 19, 1914 (age 74)
3. Where was Charles Sanders Peirce born?Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
4. Who was Charles Sanders Peirce?Charles Sanders Peirce was a brilliant American scientist and thinker born in 1839 and who passed away in 1914. He worked as a chemist for thirty years but loved philosophy and logic more than anything else.
5. What is pragmatism and why did Peirce create it?Pragmatism is a philosophy that says the meaning of ideas depends on their practical effects. Peirce invented it to show that ideas should be judged by what they do, not just by abstract thought.

Pragmatism (Pragmaticism): A philosophical doctrine asserting that the meaning of a concept is its practical consequences and that truth is what works.
Semiotics: The philosophical theory of signs and symbols, including their representation, interpretation, and function.
Synechism: Peirce's philosophical doctrine that continuity is a fundamental and real feature of the universe.
Tychism: Peirce's doctrine that chance is a real and fundamental element of the universe, not merely a product of ignorance.