The relationship between pragmatism and mathematics remains unsettled. While it is widely acknowledged that Peirce was a great mathematician whose technical achievements were already pointed out in his epoch and collected in Carolyn Eisele’s seminal work (Peirce 1976), the crucial role that his mathematics played for the entire movement of thought is less recognized. Pragmatism scholars often stopped at James’s self-proclaimed “mathematical and logical” blindness (James 1911, 93) and neglected the relevance of mathematics for other classic pragmatists. This is also one of the reasons why pragmatism is even now often read following the misleading Lovejoy’s assertion about the impossibility of finding a unitary description or definition of it (Lovejoy 1908). On the contrary, when you start from Peirce’s mathematical discoveries and classification of sciences, the unity and cohesiveness of the pragmatism project clearly emerges.
Maddalena, G. (2025). Pragmatism and Mathematics. LONDON : Routledge.
Pragmatism and Mathematics
Giovanni Maddalena
2025
Abstract
The relationship between pragmatism and mathematics remains unsettled. While it is widely acknowledged that Peirce was a great mathematician whose technical achievements were already pointed out in his epoch and collected in Carolyn Eisele’s seminal work (Peirce 1976), the crucial role that his mathematics played for the entire movement of thought is less recognized. Pragmatism scholars often stopped at James’s self-proclaimed “mathematical and logical” blindness (James 1911, 93) and neglected the relevance of mathematics for other classic pragmatists. This is also one of the reasons why pragmatism is even now often read following the misleading Lovejoy’s assertion about the impossibility of finding a unitary description or definition of it (Lovejoy 1908). On the contrary, when you start from Peirce’s mathematical discoveries and classification of sciences, the unity and cohesiveness of the pragmatism project clearly emerges.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
