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'''Charles Sanders Peirce''' (1839 – 1914)<ref> pronounced "purse"</ref> was an American logician, mathematician, philosopher, scientist and [[Polymath]]<ref> He wrote important essays on logic, pragmatism, metaphysics, mathematics, geodesy, religion, astronomy, and chemistry. He also wrote on psychology, early English and classical Greek pronunciation, psychical research, criminology, the history of science, ancient history, Egyptology, and Napoleon, prepared a thesaurus and an editor's manual, and did translations from Latin and German.</ref>  [[William James]] and other pragmatists credited Peirce as [[Pragmatism]]'s founder. Peirce eventually distinguished his own version as "Pragmaticism". He held that a conception's meaning is general and does not boil down to its actual consequences (or "cash value") but consists in the conceived object's ''conceivable'' practical consequences. He disagreed with other Pragmatists over what he called their "angry hatred of strict logic" and their views that, among other things, "truth is mutable" and "infinity is unreal".<ref>Peirce, C.S. (1908), "A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God", ''Hibbert Journal'' vol. 7, pp. 90-112. Reprinted in ''Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce'' vol. 6, paragraphs 452-485 and ''The Essential Peirce'' vol. 2, pp.434-450.</ref>. From 1879 to 1884 he was a lecturer at the new graduate university, Johns Hopkins.  There he taught logic to Christine Ladd-Franklin and to [[John Dewey]], who became a leader of the liberal wing of pragmatism. Peirce himself was quite conservative when it came to social and economic issues.<ref> See Short (2001)</ref>  

'''Charles Sanders Peirce''' (1839 – 1914)<ref> pronounced "purse"</ref> was an American logician, mathematician, philosopher, scientist and [[Polymath]]<ref> He wrote important essays on logic, pragmatism, metaphysics, mathematics, geodesy, religion, astronomy, and chemistry. He also wrote on psychology, early English and classical Greek pronunciation, psychical research, criminology, the history of science, ancient history, Egyptology, and Napoleon, prepared a thesaurus and an editor's manual, and did translations from Latin and German.</ref>  [[William James]] and other pragmatists credited Peirce as [[Pragmatism]]'s founder.<ref> Pierce later called his ideas "pragmaticism", but the new term did not prove useful to philosophers and has been abandoned.</ref> From 1879 to 1884 he was a lecturer at the new graduate university, Johns Hopkins.  There he taught logic to Christine Ladd-Franklin and to [[John Dewey]], who became a leader of the liberal wing of pragmatism. Peirce himself was quite conservative when it came to social and economic issues.<ref> See Short (2001)</ref>  

==Career==

==Career==

In 1898 William James first publicly used the term "pragmatism" and acknowledged Peirce's priority. Peirce's pragmatism, however, is not the same as James's; it has more in common with the somewhat independently developed idealism of [[Josiah Royce]] and the later views of John Dewey. Peirce shared many of the views characteristic of the pragmatic school, developing them in his own fashion. He belived in the dependence of logic on ethics, argued as early as 1868 against individualism and egoism, and developed social theories of reality and logic.  

In 1898 William James first publicly used the term "pragmatism" and acknowledged Peirce's priority. Peirce's pragmatism, however, is not the same as James's; it has more in common with the somewhat independently developed idealism of [[Josiah Royce]] and the later views of John Dewey. Peirce shared many of the views characteristic of the pragmatic school, developing them in his own fashion. He belived in the dependence of logic on ethics, argued as early as 1868 against individualism and egoism, and developed social theories of reality and logic.  

Pragmatism allows ideas to have any origin; what matters is not where we got an idea from but where we can go with it. In the case of science the usefulness of an idea includes reliability and fruitfulness. "Fruitfulness" does not mean practical utility but, rather, the opening up of original lines of successful research.As reliability is to truth, so fruitfulness is to depth and breadth of understanding. The test of truth and fruitfulness lies in the future. Truth, for the pragmatist, depends on our developing the implications of ideas so that we can find ways of applying them experimentally.<ref> See Short (2001)</ref>

Pragmatism allows ideas to have any origin; what matters is not where we got an idea from but where we can go with it. In the case of science the usefulness of an idea includes reliability and fruitfulness. "Fruitfulness" does not mean practical utility but, rather, the opening up of original lines of successful research.As reliability is to truth, so fruitfulness is to depth and breadth of understanding. The test of truth and fruitfulness lies in the future. Truth, for the pragmatist, depends on our developing the implications of ideas so that we can find ways of applying them experimentally.<ref> See Short (2001)</ref>