- Paperback: 432 pages
- Publisher: Indiana University Press; 2nd Revised edition edition (November 1998)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0253211611
- ISBN-13: 978-0253211613
- Product Dimensions: 2.3 x 1.6 x 0.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 621 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,836,370 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Having published eight books on C.S. Peirce, the founder of American pragmatism, Ketner is an acknowledged authority on the man as well as a true believer. The collected papers of Peirce (pronounced Purse) were published in multivolume editions, but Peirce never wrote an autobiography. To make up for this omission, Ketner has begun to write one for him in the first of three planned volumes. To produce this work of literary nonfiction, Ketner has inserted imagined speeches by Peirce and passages from Peirce's letters and philosophic writings where he "waxed autobiographical." To move the story along, Ketner introduces a narrator and two other fictional characters who function as intellectual detectives, separating genuine revelations from bogus ones. Their sleuthing may be helped or hindered by the fact that the narrator believes he is possessed by the spirit of Peirce. The reader is therefore confronted by a real author (Ketner), a dead subject (Peirce), fictional characters and reconstructed and imagined events. Using this convention, Ketner is able to make Peirce more immediate, and he weaves together an impressive amount of research on Peirce's early life, connecting thoughts to the thinker. However, the device of fictional scholarship becomes very complicated, awkward and, ultimately, impossible to sustain. If, as pragmatism claims, truth is whatever works, then this book cannot be called true. (Aug.) FYI: Indiana University is releasing Joseph Brent's Charles Sanders Peirce: A Life in a revised and enlarged edition. ($35 ISBN 0-253-33350-4; paper $18.95 -21161-1)
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Volume 5 of the Writings of Charles S. Peirce brings the editors of the Peirce Project one step closer to their momentous goal: a complete edition of the philosopher's works. The present volume included both an important paper on logic that introduces quantification theory and the "Study of Great Men," notes gathered by Peirce for a statistical study of human achievement. Though some of the material, e.g., "The Reciprocity Treaty with Spain," is of purely antiquarian value, the editors should be congratulated for their pursuit of one of the great scholarly endeavors of our time. Recommended for academic collections. Brent's biography of Peirce, also a considerable scholarly achievement, will have a much wider popular appeal. As Brent (history, Univ. of the District of Columbia) stresses, Peirce had a volatile nature. He was often carried away by enthusiasm, and his philosophy bears the mark of his wild temperament. The author notes Peirce's constant academic and personal feuds and the powerful influence of his father, Benjamin. This outstanding book, the first full-scale biography of Peirce, illuminates both Peirce's life and his philosophy.
- David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
- David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
Charles Sanders Peirce was born on Tuesday, September 10, 1839, into the thoroughly gentle and Protestant world of well-bred Cambridge and Boston. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Charles Sanders Peirce was born on Tuesday, September 10, 1839, into the thoroughly gentle and Protestant world of well-bred Cambridge and Boston. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific insight into the man behind the philosophy,
By A Customer
This review is from: Charles Sanders Peirce (Enlarged Edition), Revised and Enlarged Edition: A Life (Paperback)
This book contains a great deal of information on the life of a sadly-neglected philosopher; one of the most brilliant Americans of the 19th century. Dr. Brent has a wonderful, at times even poetic, writing style, and he has "lived" with Peirce so long that he has excellent insight into the man behind the philosophy. Struggling through Peirce in a class? This book may not make his philosophy "easy"--but it will make him more human.
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer
This review is from: Charles Sanders Peirce (Enlarged Edition), Revised and Enlarged Edition: A Life (Paperback)
This is a very good biography of an overlooked great American thinker. Mr. Brent does a good job of recounting the life of Peirce without getting bogged down in the details of Peirce's philosophy which is well documented in several other books. The book also attempts to analyze Peirce's behavoir and why he failed as an academic, something that desperately needed to be done. As Peirce's reputation inevitatably increases, this biography will become a classic reference to this very interesting American.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta) Amazon.com:
4.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews) 6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Charles Sanders Peirce (Enlarged Edition), Revised and Enlarged Edition: A Life (Paperback)
This is a very good biography of an overlooked great American thinker. Mr. Brent does a good job of recounting the life of Peirce without getting bogged down in the details of Peirce's philosophy which is well documented in several other books. The book also attempts to analyze Peirce's behavoir and why he failed as an academic, something that desperately needed to be done. As Peirce's reputation inevitatably increases, this biography will become a classic reference to this very interesting American.
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Terrific insight into the man behind the philosophy,
By A Customer - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Charles Sanders Peirce (Enlarged Edition), Revised and Enlarged Edition: A Life (Paperback)
This book contains a great deal of information on the life of a sadly-neglected philosopher; one of the most brilliant Americans of the 19th century. Dr. Brent has a wonderful, at times even poetic, writing style, and he has "lived" with Peirce so long that he has excellent insight into the man behind the philosophy. Struggling through Peirce in a class? This book may not make his philosophy "easy"--but it will make him more human.
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