Charles S. Peirce in the opinion of many authorities was the most profound and original philosopher that America has produced. A master of exact science, our foremost logician, the founder of pragmatism, Peirce was one of the most remarkable and versatile minds of the 19th century, whose scattered writings made important contributions to such varied fields of logic, mathematics, geodesy, religion, astronomy, chemistry, physics, psychology, history of science, metaphysics, education, semeiotics, and more. Considered by William James the most original thinker of their generation, he exerted a tremendous influence on James, Josiah Royce, John Dewey, C. I. Lewis, Ernst Schröder, among many others.Professor Wiener's well-balanced selections introduce the reader to the many sides of Peirce's thought. He presents such famous essays as "The Fixation of Belief," "How to Make Our Ideas Clear," "The Architecture of Theories," and others, along with several pieces that are not available elsewhere. Of particular interest today, when the problem of humanizing the sciences is the acute problem of our age, there are certain selections, previously neglected by students and editors of Peirce's work, which deal with the cultural or humanistic aspects of science and philosophy.The 24 selections in this book are organized into five categories: science, materialism, and idealism; pragmatism (or as Peirce preferred, pragmaticism); the history of scientific thought; science and education; and science and religion. Included are articles originally published in North American Review, Journal of Speculative Philosophy, The Monist, Popular Science Monthly, and Educational Review; extracts or transcriptions of speeches; book reviews; letters; and previously unpublished manuscripts from the Smithsonian Institution, the Lowell Institute, and the Widener Library Archives in Harvard University, Professor Wiener's excellent introduction and prefaces to the selections supply the reader with important historical and analytical background material.

Introduction"Science, Materialism and Idealism"1. The Place of Our Age in the History of Civilization2. Questions Concerning Certain Faculties Claimed for Man3. Some Consequences of Four Incapacities4. Critical Review of Berkeley's IdealismPragmaticism: A Philosophy of Science5. The Fixation of Belief6. How to Make Our Ideas Clear7. Notes on Positivism8. The Architecture of Theories9. The Doctrine of Necessity10. What Pragmatism Is11. Issues of PragmaticismLessons from the History of Scientific Thought12. Lessons of the History of Science13. Lowell Lectures on the History of Science (1892)14. Kepler15. Conclusion of the History of Science Lectures16. The Nineteenth Century: Notes17. The Century's Great Men in Science18. "Letters to Samuel P. Langley, and "Hume on Miracles and Laws of Nature"19. Research and Teaching in Physics20. Definition and Function of a University21. Logic and a Liberal Education22. Logic of Mathematics in Relation to EducationScience and Religion23. Science and Immortality The Breakdown of the Mechanical Philosophy The Marriage of Religion and Science What Is Christian Faith? A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God24. Letters to Lady WelbyBibliographical NoteIndex