Peirce founded pragmatism as a method for clarifying concepts through their conceivable practical effects and developed influential accounts of signs, inquiry, probability, and logic.
Intellectual setting
Peirce worked at the intersection of nineteenth-century American science, logic, and philosophy, but professional and financial instability limited his academic career.
Key ideas
Pragmatic maxim
To understand a concept, identify the conceivable practical consequences that its truth would make a difference to in experience and conduct.
Fallibilist inquiry
Beliefs are habits open to correction; science advances through communal inquiry rather than a final private foundation for certainty.
Legacy
His ideas shaped later pragmatism, semiotics, philosophy of science, logic, and theories of abduction, even though much of his work circulated only after his death.