P eirce, C harles S.

Abstract

Abstract The entry consists of a biographical sketch of Peirce, noting the circumstances that influenced the development of his thinking and writing. The biography also situates him within the history of American philosophy, especially his authorship of the movement known as pragmatism. His publications record an intellectual journey from Aristotle through medieval philosophy and a familiarity with Hegel and Kant to the contemporary conjunction of phenomenology and semiotics. In fact. Peircian semiotics represents one of major schools of postmodern semiotic thought in contemporary philosophy and human science. His work on semiotic phenomenology is an integration of grammar, logic, and rhetoric with direct application to communication research ranging from interpersonal relations to media analysis. His doctrine of semiotics is a philosophy constituting a logic‐based methodology for qualitative research on human communication.