Abstract

The aim of the book is to complete what is incomplete in Peirce’s study of the normative sciences, and to get a good sense of his ethical thought. This is not merely to understand Peirce, but to introduce an insightful account of ethics. Peirce’s work in ethics is fragmentary. The goal is to take the leads Peirce provides, develop them further in that direction and fill in the gaps. Peirce was primarily a logician and scientist. But he became interested in the study of ethics once he saw how scientific reasoning was being used instrumentally in the Gilded Age of 19th century America. Peirce realized that logical and scientific reasoning needed ethical direction in determining its proper use. The introduction provides an overview of how Peirce manages this task. Peirce sees moral agency as primarily purposive. He uses a desire-belief model of human motivation to analyze such conduct. He realizes that the sort of practical reasoning entailed in this model leads to an amoral instrumentalism. What is required to fix this problem is an account of good ends and righteous means. The normative sciences of ethics and esthetics are to fix this problem. Peirce’s convergence theory of truth serves as a guide for determining what are good ends and ideals of conduct, and his account of a community of inquiry reveals the sorts of norms needed to be successful in such an effort. In a different sense of esthetics, Peirce sees it as an aid to ethics in determining ends worthy of pursuit.