Passage from Nathan Houser' biographical Introduction to Volume 6 of the Writings of CSP, pp. lvii-lix:
During the years covered in this volume [Volume 6], the one continuous focus of Peirce's intellectual energy was his lexicographic work for the Century Dictionary, which in its first edition ran to 7046 quarto pages. He had begun writing definitions as early as 1883 and he continued with varying degrees of concentration from then on, but his most sustained and intensive effort came between 1888 and 1891. Peirce's contribution to the Century Dictionary was massive. He was responsible for six major subject areas-logic, metaphysics, mathematics, mechanics, astronomy, and weights and measures-but he contributed to many other areas including color terms, general philosophy, geodesy, psychology, and education (in particular, the words related to universities). Altogether he probably contributed or approved over 15,000 definitions, with many of them taking many hours of thought and research. [FOOTNOTE 37: Peirce estimated that he had been responsible for about 16,100 words (RMS 1163:2). For a more complete account see "Peirce's work for the Century Dictionary " by Jeffrey R. Di Leo and Andr¨ DeTienne, Peirce Project Newsletter 3 (1999): 1-2.37 ] >From the beginning, Peirce's lexicographic work had a decided impact on his intellectual development. At Johns Hopkins, where Peirce began working for the Century Company, he developed a course in philosophical terminology structured around his dictionary work. His desire to express usefully but as fully and accurately as possible the meanings of words such as "classification," "color," "continuity," "formal," "law," "logic," "nominalism," "predicate," "probability," "real," "relation," "science," "sign," "theorem," "truth," and "university," among many others, often led to significant developments in his ideas or in the direction of his thought. Max Fisch believed it was Peirce's return to the Greek philosophers for his dictionary work that led him to his evolutionary metaphysics, and it is likely that some of the mathematical selections in the present volume were stimulated by his lexicographic work (e.g. sel. 40). Certainly Peirce's increasing interest in classification, in the history of language, in the ethics of terminology, and in such matters as spelling reform, grew directly out of his work for the Century Dictionary. It is unclear in what order Peirce took up his dictionary work, but he appears to have begun in 1883 by working his way through the Imperial Dictionary (the basis for the Century ) letter by letter, pronouncing judgment on the Imperial's treatment of his words, emending what could be saved and supplying what more was needed-often a great deal. By 1886 he had reached "Words in E" (W5: sel. 57). But Peirce also worked on his definitions by subject areas, beginning in 1883 with definitions for selected mathematical terms, followed in the intervening years by similar efforts for color terms, metrological terms, university terms, and so on. The Century was an etymological dictionary and included carefully chosen quotations to illustrate the history of the use of its words, so during these years Peirce's intellectual purview was profoundly expansive, covering the wide range of subject areas he was responsible for and the full history of the words from those areas, from their baptisms, if that could be found out, to their most current uses. He was always on the look-out for illustrative quotations to send in to the Century Company's New York office. Sometime near the beginning of 1888, but perhaps not until the spring, Peirce started to receive galley proofs for his definitions. The Century began appearing in print the following year in bound fascicles of about three hundred pages. This process of working over the galleys incrementally, while publication was proceeding with earlier fascicles, would continue until the final fascicle, the twenty-fourth, was published early in 1891. By the end of November 1888, Peirce was through the first galley proofs for the F's and on 7 January he wrote Jem that he had received a second galley for "function." By the spring of 1890, the end of the period covered in this volume, about half of the Century was in print. Because of this piecemeal production process, from 1888 to 1891 Peirce had to revisit all of the definitions he had written during the previous five years and compose for each fascicle, as a continuing matter of priority, any definitions he had put off along the way. There is nothing that occupied Peirce more completely during these years than his dictionary work, neither his work for the Coast Survey nor his philosophical system building. It was likely this concentration that led him to set aside his "A Guess at the Riddle" manuscript, just as he seemed to have the book well in hand. It did not take long after the first of the twenty-four slim volumes of the Century Dictionary appeared in print for reviews to follow. One lone voice of dissent was heard-the voice of Simon Newcomb. In a letter to the editor of the Nation, published on 13 June 1889, Newcomb complained of certain Century definitions that were "insufficient, inaccurate, and confused to a degree which is really remarkable." The examples he gave were for "Almagest," "albedo," "eccentric anomaly," "absorption lines," "law of action and reaction," "apochromatic," "alidade," and "achromatic lens," five of which, it turned out, were Peirce's. Peirce replied in the 27 June issue of the Nation, admitting that his definition of "anomaly," "perhaps the first I wrote in astronomy," was flawed, but defending the rest. Newcomb confessed to great surprise when he found out it was Peirce he had taken to task, but privately, in a letter to William D. Whitney, Editor in Chief for the Century, he wrote: "I may say to you confidentially that several years ago I should have regarded Peirce as the ablest man in the country for such work but I fear he has since deteriorated to an extent which is truly lamentable." A few days earlier, Whitney had written to his brother that he did not understand why Newcomb felt "called upon to strain the truth and misjudge things in order to find fault" with the dictionary. "It seems," he went on, "as if he must have some private grudge to satisfy." But Newcomb's criticism quickly faded out against the countervailing tide of acclaim. Overall Peirce was quite satisfied with the results of his work, even though he would often remark, as he did to Paul Carus on 25 September 1890, "God forbid I should _approve_ of above 1/10 of what I insert." ---------------------------- End excerpt from Nathan Houser's biographical Introducion to Vol. 6 of The Writings of Charles S. Peirce, posted by Joseph Ransdell. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.15.8/260 - Release Date: 2/14/2006 --- Message from peirce-l forum to subscriber archive@mail-archive.com
