Peirce’s Philosophy of Logic

Abstract

Abstract The present chapter focuses on a few aspects of Peirce’s philosophy of logic and seeks to show that the idea of the primacy of the practical lies behind Peirce’s conception of logic. It first discusses Peirce’s classification of the sciences and tries to reveal the philosophical background and content of his logical discoveries. It then considers his view of logic as calculus, makes a few remarks on his conception of modalities, and takes notice of his introduction of three-valued logic. Special attention is paid to Peirce’s fallibilism and its relevance to his philosophy of logic. At the end, the chapter discusses Peirce’s writings on the relation between logic and psychology and argues that Peirce’s emphasis on practical reason cannot be reconciled with logical psychologism.