James Liszka

SUNY Plattsburgh | SUNY Plattsburgh · Department of Philosophy

I argue that the introduction of the normative sciences in Peirce’s 1903 Harvard Lectures was prompted by ethical concerns related to his pragmatic maxim and his pragmatism, generally. In the new formulation of the maxim, Peirce shows the relation between theory and practice more clearly. At the same time, since theoretical beliefs can translate to...

Peirce began the study of ethics once he realized that logic was a normative science and needed the guidance of ethics for a comprehensive account of reasoning. Given the state of ethics, Peirce sided with the eighteenth-century moral sentimentalists that moral sentiments and instincts were a more reliable guide to practical life. Nonetheless, Peir...

In the Harvard Lectures of 1903, Peirce gave a reformulation of his pragmatic maxim and, at the same time, recasts logic as a normative science, arguing for its dependency on ethics and esthetics—the latter understood as the study of ends. I want to argue here that the introduction of the normative sciences is prompted by how he understood the ethi...

The near sinking on a fishing boat, encounters with bears, a harrowing trip up the Copper River, saving a dog's life, and the trip to see Denali Mountain, all serve as sources for a philosopher's reflection on the natural world. The Philosopher's Alaska weaves wilderness adventure, natural history, ethics, religion, ecology, geology and Alaska Nati...

The goals of this paper are the following: (1) to articulate more clearly a pragmatist ethic that has been emerging over the last two decades (2) to outline its themes; (3) to note its major issues (4) and to suggest some remedies.

The Common Problems Project (CP2) is an interdisciplinary, problem-based pedagogy that was launched in 2015 by four partner colleges in the State University of New York (SUNY) system (Cortland, Oneonta, Oswego, and Plattsburgh). Since its inception, 100 faculty have participated in CP2 and integrated the pedagogy into 134 courses to implement 47 co...

Charles Peirce on Ethics, Esthetics and the Normative Sciences James Jakób Liszka Chapter Abstracts Book Title: Charles Peirce on Ethics, Esthetics and the Normative Sciences Introduction The aim of the book is to complete what is incomplete in Peirce’s study of the normative sciences, and to get a good sense of his ethical thought. This is not...

Problem-based ethics has its origins among the classical pragmatists but has several contemporary advocates. The principal thesis of problem-based ethics is that problems themselves can serve the same normative function as a notion of the good. They identify what is wrong in the world, and their solutions point to what will makes things better. The...

The argument here is that one type of scientific reasoning – what Charles Peirce called abduction – is a key factor in explaining how narratives – particularly in regard to plot – are constructed and read. We begin with a summary of Peirce’s concept of abduction, followed by a review of the work of Sebeok, Umiker-Sebeok and Harrowitz on abduction a...

The Semiotic of Myth is a critical study of structuralist and formalist studies of the myth. Using the Charles Peirce's semiotic theory, I develop a concept of transvaluation and apply to narrative structures in myth, and how myths tend to re-evaluate existing cultural values.

A teoria convergente da verdade de Peirce é uma abordagem intuitiva e razoável da verdade. No seu sentido mais geral, vincula a verdade aos resultados da investigação. De acordo com a máxima pragmática, Peirce percebeu que as consequências práticas de afirmações verdadeiras são de trazer investigações à fruição e resolver opinião. No entanto, a teo...

The discursive effort of the Chinese educational reformers to make their case included publishing their theories of education in voluminous papers and books, focusing on the use of vernacular Chinese as medium, Chinese character based literacy education in rural areas, among other things. A new discursive system is often recognized as a sign of n...

Attempts to explain Peirce’s various classifications of signs have been a preoccupation of many Peirce scholars. Opinions are mixed about the sense, coherence, and fruitfulness of Peirce’s various versions, particularly the latter ones. I argue here that it is not a fruitful enterprise, even if sense could be made of them. Although Peirce makes his...

Argumenta-se aqui que a melhor interpretação da estética de Peirce é como uma ciência normativa de fins ideais. As influências de Peirce neste particular incluem a noção de kalos de Platão, A educação estética do homem de Friedrich Schiller, e a arquitetônica kantiana. Baseada principalmente nos rascunhos de Minute Logic em 1902 e as Palestras de H...

A strong case can be made that Peirce’s formal rhetoric is primarily a theory of inquiry. Peirce’s convergence theory of truth requires a community of inquiry enduring indefinitely over time. Such a community, then, must promote “solidarity” in Peirce’s terms, a consistent practice of cooperation among inquirers over generations. One of the tasks o...

There are two interesting puzzles about tropes. They are literal nonsense, yet native speakers easily makes sense of them. Despite being literal nonsense they actually help clarify and enhance meanings and sharpen reference. In this paper, I explain these puzzles through the use of the linguistic theories of markedness and rank, as framed by Peirce...

In his early work, Peirce characterizes information in its ordinary sense as an increase in factual knowledge, and is concerned to show how it can be expressed propositionally. However, beginning in 1893, and culminating in work done in 1906, Peirce conceives of information more abstractly as linked to the “form” in the object, and the sign more br...

Peirce proposed the idea of a normative science. The three disciplines of logic, ethics, and esthetics would each study a kind of good: good reasoning, good conduct, and good ends. By calling them sciences, his study raises the question of what sort of science a normative science would be. For Peirce, these inquiries were both formal and positive,...

Peirce proposed the idea of a normative science. The three disciplines of logic, eth-ics, and esthetics would each study a kind of good: good reasoning, good conduct, and good ends. By calling them sciences, his study raises the question of what sort of science a normative science would be. For Peirce, these inquiries were both for-mal and positive...

Although John Dewey has had the most profound effect on education, less is known about the philosophy of education of the original founder of pragmatism, Charles Peirce Using Peirce’s theory of formal rhetoric, I try to show that Peirce’s philosophy of education, when fully understood, is aligned with Dewey’s pedagogy of experiential learning, and...

This chapter begins with an overview of Peirce's system of ethics, particularly as a way to clarify his distinction between its theoretical and practical sides, and the interrelation among the normative sciences of logic, ethics, and esthetics. The task, then, is to give some substantive account of the normative science of ethics. Given his sketchy...

Peirce's formal rhetoric is the least developed of his three branches of semeiotic. I argue that Peirce intended formal rhetoric to be a general theory of inquiry. Peirce recognized that semeiotic requires a cooperative effort by inquirers guided by certain methodological and normative principles and was thus one of the three normative sciences. Th...

The settlements surrounding the Exxon Valdez oil spill prove to be an interesting case of retributive and corrective justice in regard to damage to the ecology of the commons, particularly in light of the recent Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico. After reviewing the harm done to the ecology of Prince William Sound by the spill, and an a...

According to T.L. Short, Peirce's early thought-sign account of semeiotic engenders fatal flaws. On the one hand, it entails an infinite regressus of representation that cannot feasibly explain the connection between signs and objects and, on the other, an infinite progressus, leaving Peirce's theory without the wherewithal to account for the sign'...

In the last few decades psychologists have gained a clearer picture of the notion of happiness and a more sophisticated account of its explanation. Their research has serious consequences for any ethic based on the maximization of happiness, especially John Stuart Mill’s classical eudaimonistic utilitarianism. In the most general terms, the researc...

Although philosophers often focus on the essays of Leopold's Sand County Almanac, especially "The Land Ethic," there is also a normative argument present in the stories that comprise most of the book. In fact the shack stories may be more persuasive, with a subtlety and complexity not available in his prose piece. This paper develops a narrative et...

Although philosophers often focus on the essays of Leopold's Sand County Almanac, especially "The Land Ethic," there is also a normative argument present in the stories that comprise most of the book. In fact the shack stories may be more persuasive, with a subtlety and complexity not available in his prose piece. This paper develops a narrative et...

An account of Peirce's three conditions for anything to count as a sign. How these address emergentist versus correlative theories of meaning.

The Henry James Review 18.3 (1997) 213-216 AQR: There are many people who feel that contemporary philosophy has no connection with the broader culture and, more alarmingly, neither with the culture's intelligentsia: artists, writers, journalists and the like. Do you agree with that? Danto: I think it's a justifiable complaint. It has been a long ti...

Jakobson has argued that Peirce “must be regarded as a genuine and bold forerunner of structural linguistics” (1971:II,565). Indeed the claim that “...modern structuralist thinking has clearly established language as a system of signs, and linguistics as part of the science of signs or semiotic” (1971:II,713),might lend credence to the first propos...

In his early work Lévi-Strauss claims that “the purpose of the myth is to provide a logical model capable of overcoming a contradiction” (1963:229). “Mythical thought always progresses from the awareness of oppositions toward their resolution.” (1963:224). Lévi-Strauss suggests four logical processes whose function is precisely this mediation: In t...

According to T.L. Short, Peirce's early thought-sign account of semeiotic engenders fatal flaws. On the one hand, it entails an infinite regressus of representation that cannot feasibly explain the connection between signs and objects and, on the other, an infinite progressus, leaving Peirce's theory without the wherewithal to account for the sign'...

Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Carolina. Includes bibliographical references.