BOOK NOTES in This Section We Publish Short Descriptive Notices of New Books About Peirce Or Subjects Likely to Interest Our Readers

PEIRCE PROJECT NEWSLETTER 6 Volume 3, No. 2, Fall 2000

BOOK NOTES In this section we publish short descriptive notices of new books about Peirce or subjects likely to interest our readers. We cannot survey all new publications or prepare critical reviews, so we notice only those books sent by authors and publishers. When available, we reprint notices supplied with the books (often edited and supplemented with text from prefaces or introductions); otherwise we prepare our own brief announcements. Please note: we notice books only if they are sent as review copies to be deposited in the Project library. Prices and ISBNs are given when available.

Signs Grow: Semiosis and Life Pro- tive merits of different kinds of reasoning. noticed in a previous issue of the Newslet- cesses Peirce’s Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism ter. As noted then, Elements of Knowledge Floyd Merrell and selections from A Syllabus of Certain is remarkable for serving as an accessible University of Toronto Press, 1996, 356 pp. Topics of Logic are among the texts introduction to pragmatism while also ISBN 0-8020-7142-2 (paper), $24.95 included. There are a few previously serving as an excellent text for courses in unpublished texts and all have been newly reasoning. Now, in the Vanderbilt edition, Signs Grow is the third volume of Mer- edited. Even well-known writings appear Stewart has smoothed out his prose and rell’s trilogy on signs, which began with fresh and in new light in their chronologi- improved the presentation and has suc- Signs Becoming Signs and Semiosis in the cal placement. All selections are intro- ceeded in giving us a superb text for the Postmodern Age. Whereas the first two duced by summary headnotes and there is classroom, whether for logic or general volumes concentrate on the firstness and a general introduction to provide histori- education, yet in a form well adapted for the secondness of the sign respectively, cal background. EP 2 is extensively anno- the general reader. Signs Grow explores the thirdness of the tated, and an electronic companion sign. Elaborating on Peirce’s doctrine of mounted on the Peirce Edition Project’s the man-sign, Merrell argues that after Web site provides additional support for Genealogical Pragmatism: Philosophy, they are “born,” signs begin to grow “in a classroom use. Experience, and Community twisting, turning world of ordered com- John J. Stuhr plexity, of chaotic harmony,” in the course SUNY Press, 1997, xiv + 300 pp. of which they go through puberty, mature, The Logical Status of Diagrams ISBN 0-7914-3558-X (paper), $19.95 survive midlife crises, so as to finally Sun-Joo Shin become senile and fade away. Merrell’s Cambridge University Press, 1994, 197 pp. Stuhr begins his preface with the question book is a strangely fascinating blend of ISBN 0-521-46157-X (cloth), $39.95 “Can a book have a preface?” In other Peircean semiotics and post-modern words, can a book begin before it begins? insights that is intensely stimulating. Shin challenges the all-too-common prej- Moreover, can the start of anything really udice against visualization in the history be a beginning? Isn’t any beginning a of logic and mathematics and provides a reconstruction? In this way, Stuhr intro- The Essential Peirce, Vol. 2 formal foundation for work on natural duces readers to his view that the work of The Peirce Edition Project reasoning in a visual mode. She presents pragmatism is reconstruction: it recon- Indiana University Press, 1998, xxxviii + Venn diagrams as a formal system of rep- structs philosophy, experience, and com- 584 pp. resentation equipped with its own syntax munity. Pragmatism must be critical, ISBN 0-253-33397-0 (cloth), $39.95 and semantics, and specifies rules of addressing future possibilities, but it must ISBN 0-253-21190-5 (paper), $24.95 transformation that make her system also address the past—for the sake of the sound and complete. Shin’s extended sys- future. In looking backward, in presenting This book, which completes the two-vol- tem is based on Peirce’s graphical innova- itself as “the history of the future of phi- ume Essential Peirce, provides the first tions which, according to Shin, “not only losophy,” pragmatism is genealogical. comprehensive anthology of Peirce’s overcame some important defects of Venn Genealogical pragmatism avoids stagna- mature philosophy. During his later years, diagrams but opened the way to a totally tion and irrelevance—“the chewing of Peirce worked unremittingly to integrate new horizon for logical diagrams.” Shin historic cud long ago reduced to woody new insights and discoveries into his gen- concludes with a discussion of the funda- fiber”—by being constantly guided by the eral system of philosophy and to make his mental differences between graphical sys- fully faced present. Guided more by major doctrines fully coherent within that tems and linguistic systems. Dewey than any other pragmatist, Stuhr system. A central focus of this volume is investigates the practical ramifications of Peirce’s evolving theory of signs and its a genealogical pragmatism that takes seri- application to his pragmatism. Included Elements of Knowledge: Pragmaticism, ously the notion that the future of philoso- are thirty-one pivotal texts, beginning Logic, and Inquiry phy is to help shape the future. with “Immortality in the Light of Syn- Arthur Franklin Stewart The three parts of Stuhr’s book echism” (in which Peirce proposes syn- Vanderbilt University Press, 1997, 145 pp. explore and evaluate—and extend—the echism—the tendency to regard ISBN 0-826-51303-4 (cloth), $19.95 reconstructive import of the work of the everything as continuous—as a key classical pragmatists for philosophy, advance over materialism, idealism, and This is a revised and expanded version of experience, and community. The fifteen dualism) and ending with Peirce’s late Stewart’s Elements of Knowledge: Prag- essays that make up this book are persua- and unfinished investigations of the rela- maticism and Philosophy of Knowledge, sively written and exhibit fine craftsman-

PEIRCE PROJECT NEWSLETTER 7 Volume 3, No. 2, Fall 2000

BOOK NOTES ship. They not only feature the classical Mark Baldwin’s entry for “Logical exercise bike, the telephone kiosk, and the pragmatists, but also include discussions Machine” in his Dictionary of Philosophy bicycle helmet. Vihma makes good use of of the work of many contemporary prag- and Psychology. The issue opens with Irv- Peirce’s distinction between icon, index, matists and philosophers. Chapter 6, ing Anellis’s article on the place of John and symbol. Early electric irons, for “Rorty As Elvis,” is an especially engag- Vincent Atanasoff in the history of com- instance, had to resemble the old models ing discussion of Rorty’s misreading of puter logic and technology. Atanasoff is that worked with coals; steam irons often Dewey. Peirce scholars will be most inter- credited with building the first full-size have pilot lights to indicate they have ested in chapter 11, where Stuhr criticizes electronic digital computer. In his paper reached the right temperature; and irons Peirce’s account of the normative sci- Anellis traces the development of com- generally contain symbols such as the ences. He considers Peirce’s view that the puter logic in both the United States (giv- famous “Made in Germany.” According ideal of conduct is to contribute to reasoning due attention to the two Peirces) and to Vihma, this triadic division becomes an ableness and attempts to identify some Russia, drawing heavily on original Rus- exceptionally useful tool when compar- practical consequences of this view “for sian sources. ing, for instance, the various steam irons individual and social action.” Stuhr paints that come on the market—a tool far richer Peirce as hopelessly entrenched in a fun- than traditional approaches that seek to damental dualism of theory and practice “Charles Sanders Peirce and the Prin- examine designed objects only within the (and also of means and ends, facts and ciple of Bivalence” context of cultural history, or in terms of values, and logic and inquiry) but draws Robert Edwin Lane social power structures, or according to out some important practical lessons Dissertation, University of Miami, 1998, their ergonomic aspects. nonetheless. Peirceans will want to chal- 261 pp. lenge some of Stuhr’s interpretations, and well they should, but it would be a shame In 1909, Peirce defined the first operators The Peirce Seminar Papers: Essays in to lose track of the main thrust of Stuhr’s for three-valued logic, thus rejecting the Semiotic Analysis, Vol. 4 message. This is an important book. principle of bivalence. Lane challenges Michael Shapiro and Michael C. Haley the way commentators have interpreted (eds.) Peirce’s reasons for this move. Lane Berghahn Books, 1999, xi + 637 pp. Catching Up with the Vision, A Supple- rejects in particular the following inter- ISBN 1-57181-732-8 (cloth), $69.95 ment to Isis, Vol. 90 pretations of Peirce’s third value: object- Margaret W. Rossiter (ed.) indeterminate propositions, indetermi- This volume constitutes the proceedings University of Chicago Press, 1999, 359 pp. nate predications, modal propositions, of the International Colloquium on Lan- and lawful generalizations of future guage and Peircean Sign Theory held at This supplement to the journal Isis con- directed subjunctive conditionals. Instead, Duke University in June 1997, and contains a selection of essays written in cele- Lane argues, Peirce intended this third tains 22 papers by linguists and philoso- bration of the 75th anniversary of the value to be taken by so-called “boundary phers working together to understand the History of Science Society’s founding. propositions”; that is, propositions which relevance of Peirce’s “semeiotic” to con- The volume includes a paper by Mary predicate of a continuity breach one of the temporary linguistics. From among the Louise Gleason on the metropolitan New properties that is a boundary property rel- papers worthy of Peirce scholars’ atten- York section of the society, in which she ative to that breach. Lane concludes his tion, let us single out the following eight. gives a detailed account of the role of argument by considering how Peirce’s Tony Jappy demonstrates the superior Carolyn Eisele. Roger Hahn’s paper on rejection of the principle of bivalence analytical power of Peirce’s theory of ico- Berkeley’s History of Science Dinner affects his pragmatic account of truth. nicity over categorically degenerate ver- Club devotes some attention to the role of sions such as some Jakobsonian models. Victor Lenzen. Tom Short offers an important study of Products as Representations: a semiotic Peirce’s conception of teleology, contrast- and aesthetic study of design prod- ing it with that of purposefulness. Joëlle ucts. Réthoré shows how a semiotics steeped in Modern Logic 7 Susann Vihma pragmaticism overtakes traditional lin- Irving Anellis (ed.), January 1997, 108 pp. Dissertation, University of Art and Design guistic methodology when it comes to Helsinki, 1995, 209 pp. analyzing discourse, especially assertions. This issue of Modern Logic is largely Jim Liszka clearly explains the three nec- devoted to computers and logical Vihma uses Peirce’s semeiotic to analyze essary conditions that allow a process to machines. It contains a number of histori- the different ways in which designed become meaningful: directedness, media- cally significant texts in this area, includ- products can act as signs. In addition to a tion, and interpretation. Dan Nesher ing Charles Peirce’s “Logical Machines” study of the literature, and a theoretical shows the relevance of Peirce’s pragmati- (which is also published in volume 6 of chapter on the application of semeiotic for cist semiotics for learning theory. Michael the Writings), Benjamin Peirce’s “A New design products, Vihma concentrates on Haley teaches George Lakoff a good les- System of Binary Arithmetic,” and James four such products: the steam iron, the son in Peircean philosophy. Robert Innis

PEIRCE PROJECT NEWSLETTER 8 Volume 3, No. 2, Fall 2000

BOOK NOTES brings to light significant agreements out by John E. Smith, “Nowhere else did Colapietro for Peirce, and James Camp- between Peirce and Polanyi on perception Royce have an opportunity to explain the bell for Mead. In addition, some revisions and meaning. Finally, Helmut Pape offers relations between his two most ambitious were made in the James and Santayana an engaging discussion of context-depen- works, The World and the Individual and selections. The result is the best collection dence, indexicality, and vagueness. Over- The Problem of Christianity and to show of its kind. all, this is an excellent collection how they complement each other, the reflecting the ever-widening appeal and former being the ‘logical’ approach to potential of Peirce’s logic of signs. metaphysics and the latter the ‘social’ The Writings of Charles S. Peirce, Vol. 6 approach.” Peirceans will be especially Peirce Edition Project interested in Royce’s many references to Indiana University Press, 2000, lxxxiv + Charles S. Peirce: On Norms and Ideals Peirce and to his assessment of some of 656 pp. Vincent G. Potter, S. J., with a new intro- Peirce’s contributions. When commenting ISBN 0-253-37206-2 (cloth), $49.95 duction by Stanley M. Harrison on Peirce’s discovery that there is an Fordham University Press, American Phi- intellectual “mode of action” that can’t be This volume contains forty-seven writ- losophy series, 1997, xxxiii + 229 pp. defined in terms of perception or concep- ings—most from the unsettled period in ISBN 0-8232-1709-4 (cloth), $30.00 tion, Royce remarked, “I don’t think Peirce’s life just after he moved from New ISBN 0-8232-1710-8 (paper), $16.00 James ever appreciated the views of York to Milford, Pennsylvania, followed Charles Peirce.” From Royce, who knew shortly afterward by the death of his This is a reprint of a celebrated work that James so well, this comment must be mother. It begins with interesting rem- first appeared in 1967, in which the late taken seriously indeed. Royce also makes nants of Peirce’s correspondence course Father Potter excavated systematically many penetrating criticisms of the propo- in logic, by which he hoped in vain to and thoroughly the foundations support- nents of “the new realism,” who were then make a living. Other notable selections ing several major pillars of Peirce’s beginning to build up steam. Of course include the much-heralded “A Guess at mature philosophical system. A primary the main value of this collection is to add the Riddle,” Peirce’s never-finished yet reference in Peirce scholarship, Potter’s to our understanding of Royce’s own phi- substantial attempt to draw his wide-rang- book studies Peirce’s conception of the losophy in one of its most mature presen- ing philosophical theories into a unified three normative sciences, his theoretical tations. Hocking and Oppenheim have system of thought; his dispute with definitions of them, and in particular the added an important work to the growing Edmund Gurney over Gurney’s Phan- puzzling but fundamental claim that library of Classical American Philosophy. tasms of the Living; his attack, under the esthetics precedes ethics, which in turn pseudonym “Outsider,” on Spencer’s precedes logic. Potter shows how this mechanical philosophy; and lengthy claim is inseparable from the kernel of Pragmatism and Classical American excerpts from the report on gravity that Peirce’s pragmaticism, and how a correct Philosophy: Essential Readings & led to his forced resignation from the U.S. understanding of it provides a smooth Interpretive Essays, Second Edition Coast and Geodetic Survey. These and philosophical introduction to all the pre- John J. Stuhr (ed.) other writings in this volume reveal Peirce’s misses of Peirce’s evolutionary metaphys- Oxford University Press, 2000, xii + 707 pp. powerful mind probing into diverse issues, ics, including those of his synechism, his ISBN 0-195-11829-4 (cloth), $59.95 looking for an underlying unity but, per- tychism, and his agapism. Harrison’s ISBN 0-195-11830-8 (paper), $32.95 haps, also looking for direction. introduction is clear and inspirational, and is a useful guide to some of the milestones Most readers of this newsletter are in the book. already familiar with the first edition of PEIRCE BOOK FOUND John Stuhr’s anthology. First published in Another book from Peirce’s personal 1997, it quickly became one of the most library has resurfaced. Professor Will- Metaphysics: Royce’s 1915Ð16 Class widely used texts for university courses iam Jensen, Oesper Professor of Chem- Lectures on nineteenth- and early twentieth-cen- istry at the University of Cincinnati, Richard Hocking and Frank Oppenheim (eds.) tury American philosophy. Now in its sec- discovered one of Peirce’s books at a SUNY Press, 1998, xxi + 346 pp. ond edition, with “Pragmatism” added to used book sale, and he generously ISBN 0-7914-3866-X (paper), $24.95 the title and expanded in scope to include donated it to the Peirce Edition Project. Emerson and some of the contemporary The book is Edward Johnston Vernon’s These lectures were initially edited by thought that helps put classical pragma- A Guide to the Anglo-Saxon Tongue: A William Ernest Hocking from detailed tism into context, Stuhr’s anthology is Grammar after Erasmus Rask (Lon- class notes taken by Ralph W. Brown and sure to become a classic in its own right. don: John Russell Smith, 1850). The complemented by notes from Bryon F. Changes to this edition go beyond the front flyleaf of the book is signed Underwood. This book is an outstanding inclusion of new sections. The sections on “Charles S. Peirce / Harvard College,” achievement that virtually enables readers Peirce and Mead have been reorganized and the book contains some annota- today to sit in on Royce’s last yearlong (the Peirce section entirely) and intro- tions in Peirce’s handwriting. course in metaphysics. As was pointed duced by different scholars: Vincent