That's interesting, Chris; thanks for that. I knew he'd ended up badly, but didn't know details. One of my philosophy professors in college (Sandra Rosenthal) was in a group that was trying to sort through a mass of unpublished writings, and alluded to the fact that he died pretty much alone (in the sense of distant from the academic community), but she didn't give us any of the dirt. :)
I don't know what became of that project, but it was amazing to take a class in classical American pragmatism from someone so close to the source. m -- Marc Carter, PhD Associate Professor and Chair Department of Psychology College of Arts & Sciences Baker University -- ________________________________ From: Christopher D. Green [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Friday, October 22, 2010 12:05 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Peirce smart; Wundt nazi? Marc Carter wrote: Too true. His paper was "The Fixation of Belief," not knowledge. I teach that paper as "ways of coming to believe," but many texts use "ways of coming to know." That's such a great paper. Those guys were *smart*. Indeed, Charles Sanders Peirce (note the spelling) may have been the smartest man in America in the second half of the 19th century. One article (Cadwallader, JHBS, 1974) claims he was the first experimental psychologist in the US (for his color vision research in 1877), among his many other professions: astronomer, gravitational researcher, mathematician, logician, pragmatic philosopher). But he was also a bit of a whack-job, and was so successful in pissing off so many powerful people that, after his father died, his career rapidly whithered to nearly nothing. Charles W. Eliot, the president of Harvard, wouldn't allow Peirce on campus (even though he had graduated from there, and both his father and brother were professors there). Simon Newcomb regularly went out of his way to undermine Peirce's job prospects. Daniel C. Gilman, president of Johns Hopkins, fired him (to a first approximation) because he moved in with his (future) second wife before finalizing the divorce from his first wife (the first of the big three psych-related sex-scandal firings from Hopkins -- Baldwin, Watson). It was the last academic position he ever held. G. Stanley Hall got the Hopkins professorship instead. When William R. Harper, the president of U. Chicago, considered hiring Peirce (with Wm. James' recommendation), Harvard philosopher George H. Palmer warned Harper off him. John Dewey got that job instead. By the 1900s, the only friends Peirce seemed to have left were his former student, Christine Ladd Franklin (who thought he had begun to lose his mind in the 1890s) and William James (who would periodically solicit donations on Peirce's behalf to enable him to keep body and soul together at the increasingly decrepit rural Pennsylvania farm to which he had retreated). A very sad story. ================= ________________________________ The information contained in this e-mail and any attachments thereto ("e-mail") is sent by Baker University ("BU") and is intended to be confidential and for the use of only the individual or entity named above. The information may be protected by federal and state privacy and disclosures acts or other legal rules. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you are notified that retention, dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error please immediately notify Baker University by email reply and immediately and permanently delete this e-mail message and any attachments thereto. Thank you. --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=5891 or send a blank email to leave-5891-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
