The Normative Thought of Charles S. Peirce [Hardcover]

This volume explores the three normative sciences that Peirce distinguished (aesthetics, ethics, and logic) and their relation to phenomenology and metaphysics. The essays approach this topic from a variety of angles, ranging from questions concerning the normativity of logic to an application of Peirces semiotics to John Coltranes A Love Supreme.

A recurrent question throughout is whether a moral theory can be grounded in Peirces work, despite his rather vehement denial that this can be done. Some essays ask whether a dichotomy exists between theoretical and practical ethics. Other essays show that Peirces philosophy embraces meliorism, examine the role played by self-control, seek to ground communication theory in Peirces speculative rhetoric, or examine the normative aspect of the notion of truth.

These are all sophisticated philosophical essays devoted, some primarily to the interpretation and others to the extension of, the ideas of one of America's most difficult thinkers. A collection of eleven essays on the moral philosophy of the American Polymath Charles S. Peirce (18391914). The essays cover the three normative sciences that Peirce distinguishes (esthetics, ethics, and logic), and their relation to metaphysics.The volume makes a timely contribution to current Peirce scholarship.

This is an outstanding work of scholarship, an important contribution
to the now significant body of secondary literature devoted to the
philosophy of Charles S. Peirce. The intellectual range of the book is
truly impressive, and yet the attention to Peirces realism throughout
supplies an important thread of continuity.