A Plea for a Peircean Turn in Analytic Philosophy Essay -- Philosophy

A Plea for a Peircean Turn in Analytic Philosophy ABSTRACT: Criticisms of analytic philosophy have increased in intensity in the last decade, denouncing specifically its closing in on itself, which results in barrenness and ignorance of real human problems. The thought of C. S. Peirce is proposed as a fruitful way of renewing the analytic tradition and obviating these criticisms. While this paper is largely a reflection on Hilary Putnam’s study of the historical development of analytic philosophy, not only can some of its main roots be traced back to Peirce, but also the recent resurgence of pragmatism can be regarded as a pragmatist renovation of the analytic tradition. Further, Peirce’s thought offers suggestions for tackling some of the most stubborn problems in contemporary philosophy, thereby enabling us to shoulder once more the philosophical responsibility which has been abdicated by much of twentieth-century philosophy. The most accurate understanding of Peirce is to see him as a traditional and systematic phil osopher, but one dealing with the modern problems of science truth, and knowledge from a valuable personal experience as a logician and an experimental researcher in the bosom of an interdisciplinary community of scientists and thinkers. "Most people have never heard of him, but they will" W. Percy, "The Divided Creature", 80 Criticisms of analytic philosophy have increased in intensity in the last decade, denouncing specifically its closing in on itself, resulting in barrenness and ignorance of real human problems. It is not only the genius loci, nor the echoes of his Sesquicentennial Congress held here in Boston in September, 1989, but within the solemn framework of a World Congress of Philosophy on t... ...s, Cambridge, MA, 1990. H. Putnam, "A Half Century of Philosophy, Viewed From Within", Daedalus 126 (1997), 175-208. R. Rorty, "Pragmatism, Categories, and Language", Philosophical Review 70 (1961), 197-223. R. Rorty, Consequences of Pragmatism (Essays: 1972-1980), University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 1982. R. Rorty, "Pragmatism as Anti-Representationalism", in J. P. Murphy, Pragmatism from Peirce to Davidson, Westview, Boulder, CO, 1990, 1-6. B. Russell, Wisdom of the West, Doubleday, Garden City, NY, 1959. L. Santaella-Braga, "Difficulties and Strategies in Applying Peirce’s Semiotics", Semiotica 97 (1993), 401-410. W. Spohn, "Editorial Note", Erkenntnis 33 (1990) 1-4. L. Wittgenstein, Culture and Value, G. H. von Wright, ed., Blackwell, Oxford, 1980. G. H. von Wright, The Tree of Knowledge and Other Essays, Brill, Leiden, 1993.