First Published in 1999. The purpose of this series is to provide a contemporary assessment and history of the entire course of philosophical thought. Each book constitutes a detailed, critical introduction to the work of a philosopher of major influence and significance. Many people share the opinion that Charles S.Peirce is a philosophical giant, perhaps the most important philosopher to have emerged in the United States. Most philosophers think of him as the founder of 'pragmatism'. But, curiously, few have read more than two or three of his best-known papers, and these somewhat unrepresentative ones. On reading further, one finds a rich and impressive corpus of writings, containing imaginative and original discussions of a wide range of issues in most areas of philosophy.

Christopher Hookway

Introduction Part One PEIRCE'S PROJECT: THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH I Logic, Mind and Reality: Early Thoughts II Truth and the Aims of Inquiry III Categories IV Assertion and Interpretation: the Theory of Signs Part Two KNOWLEDGE AND REALITY V Perception and the Outward Clash VI Mathematical Reasoning and the a priori VII The Growth of Knowledge: Induction and Abduction VIII Pragmatism IX Evolutionary Cosmology and Objective Idealism