Abstract

Charles S. Peirce traveled to Europe on five different occasions.1 The five trips took place between 1870 and 1883, all of them in the service of the Coast and Geodetic Survey, at the time the chief scientific agency of the United States. Those trips—which covered a total of thirty-eight months—were a rich mixture of scientific research and tourism, of communication with other scientists and of enjoyment of the artistic treasures of Europe. The impact of this extensive travelling was so important in Peirce's life and thought that it makes perfect sense to identify this period of time as his "cosmopolitan period"—to use Max Fisch's expression.Peirce's experiences of his European voyages are vividly...