Peirce on Realism and Idealism

This book offers a new interpretation of the metaphysics of Charles Peirce (1839–1914), the founder of pragmatism and one of America's greatest philosophers. Robert Lane begins by examining Peirce's basic realism, his belief in a world that is independent of how anyone believes it to be. Lane argues that this realism is the basis for Peirce's account of truth, according to which a true belief is one that would be settled by investigation and that also represents the real world. He then explores Peirce's application of his Pragmatic Maxim to clarify the idea of reality, his two forms of idealism, and his realism about generality and vagueness. This rich study will provide readers with a clear understanding of Peirce's thoughts on reality and truth and how they intersect, and of his views on the relation between the mind and the external world.

Introduction: basic realism; 1. The dual-aspect account of truth; 2. The pragmatic clarification of the idea of reality; 3. Basic idealism and objective idealism; 4. The idealistic theory of reality: idealism in the cognition series; 5. Generals: early scholastic realism; 6. Generals and vagues: late scholastic realism; 7. 'A lacuna in the completeness of reality': deficit indeterminacy.

Robert Lane is Professor of Philosophy at the University of West Georgia. He is editor of Peirce submissions for the Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society and has published numerous essays on Peirce.