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. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
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. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
- David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., Ohio
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
