Charles Peirce’s Pragmatic Pluralism (SUNY Series (Suny Series in Philosophy) by Sandra B. Rosenthal (PDF)

Description

This work runs counter to the traditional interpretations of Peirce’s philosophy by eliciting an inherent strand of pragmatic pluralism that is embedded in the very core of his thought and that weaves his various doctrines into a systematic pattern of pluralism.Rosenthal gives a new design to the seeming bedrock of Peirce’s position: convergence toward the final ultimate opinion of the community of interpreters in the idealized long run. Focusing frequently on passages from Peirce’s writings which have been virtually ignored in the more traditional interpretations of his work, this book shows the way in which Peirce’s position, far from lying in opposition to the Kuhnian interpretation of science, provides strong and much needed metaphysical and epistemic underpinnings for it in a way which avoids the pitfalls of false alternatives offered by the philosophical tradition. The book examines in depth the various features of Peirce’s position that enter into these underpinnings. Among the topics explored are meaning, truth, perception, world, sign relations, realism, categorical inquiry, phenomenology, temporality, and speculative metaphysics.

User’s Reviews

Product description レビュー I am impressed with the author’s adept way of interweaving the diverse threads of Peirce’s thought into a coherent thesis: underlying Peirce’s idealism, realism, anti-nominalism, phenomenology, metaphysical categories is a commitment to pluralism. This is both an interesting and original way to address Peirce’s philosophy. — Carl R. Hausman, Penn StateI like the force and subtlety with which Rosenthal makes her case for Peirce’s pragmatic pluralism; the care and sophistication with which she interprets relevant texts (especially those that seem to point in the direction away from her main thesis); and the light which she sheds on some of the most important but difficult parts of Peirce’s philosophy.Rosenthal’s take on Peirce will force those of us who do not see in Peirce such a thoroughgoing or radical pluralist to rethink the issue. The debate likely to be sparked by her interpretation will sharpen our understanding of Peirce both as a philosopher of science and a metaphysician. Professor Rosenthal illuminates crucial issues, often in a startling manner, one truly suggestive of previously unexplained possibilities. — Vincent Colapietro, Fordham University 著者について Sandra B. Rosenthal is Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University. She is co-author, with Patrick L. Bourgeois, of Mead and Merleau-Ponty, also published by SUNY Press, and author of Speculative Pragmatism.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The stated purpose of “Pragmatic Pluralism” is to elicit the pluralism that is embedded in Peirce’s thought and thereby provide an understanding of Peirce’s convergence definition of truth. Rosenthal uses Peirce to build a philosophical justification for Thomas Kuhn’s theories of scientific advance, and provides novel pluralistic interpretations of Peirce’s theories of meaning, truth and reality. Your liking for this book will depend on your affinity for the pluralistic position, as well as your prior knowledge of Peirce. Given these, you will find this book to be very useful and stimulating. Rosenthal has a (usually) pleasing literary style but does assume quite a lot from the reader — especially a prior familiarity with Peirce. The chapters are uneven in their difficulty. Much of the second chapter “Meaning as Habit” would be incomprehensible to anyone without some prior study of Peirce’s semiotics, and its section on perception (51-61) would be clearer if you had previously read a digestible treatment, such as Susan Haack’s “How the Critical Common-sensist Sees Things”.Even though the entire book is making a case for pluralism, the concept itself is never explicitly defined, and only gradually becomes revealed. The following short definition of pluralism (adapted from Longino 2003) seems close to the sense used in the book:Pluralism holds that multiple, incompatible scientific theories can offer correct accounts of known phenomena, and their correctness is judged from the perspective of different background assumptions and cognitive goals. Such theories are inherently partial or incomplete, unable to encompass all the aspects of a complex phenomenon throughout their entire range.Rosenthal admits (x, 51, 62) to choosing less known selections from Peirce, and extrapolating from them to make her case for pluralism. So the reader will have to carefully judge for themself how well she represents Peirce, and how consistent her conclusions are with the (evolving) Peircean position. I sympathize with her desire to qualify Peirce’s concept of convergence to truth, as that unadulterated concept is a big pill to swallow. Still, it did seem to be important to Peirce. He wrote late in his life (1909/10/11) that many powerful minds “have all alike missed that point of view which would have reconciled them all in one truth”.The following excerpt from page 119 is my favorite quote:”[Peirce] has gone the path of those truly great philosophers who do not just take different alternatives among old choices but provide frameworks that reject the logic of the original questioning in terms of which both the problem and all its possible alternatives arise.”I rate the book 5 stars for what it has given me to enjoy and to think about, and its many documented Peirce references, but I would penalize it 1 star for needed improvements in organization and required reader preparation.

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