PHGA  7251  Peirce (and the Problem of Universals)
Professor Claudine Tiercelin
Fall Semester 2006
Thursdays, 11:00-1:00

Objectives :

The aims of the course will be:

1) through a study of basic texts, to introduce to Peirce’s general philosophical project (e.g. his relation to Duns Scotus, his criticism of all kinds of nominalisms, the specific form his pragmatism takes, the nature of his scholastic realism, of his semiotic of vagueness, of his scientific metaphysics); and

2) through a selection of concepts and problems (e.g. vagueness, individuals, properties, dispositions, laws of nature, realism), to show the relevance of Peirce’s views for contemporary discussions in metaphysics.

Requirements: Students are expected to participate in class and write a 20- to 25- page research paper at the end of the term.

Main topics:

1. General introduction: C.S. Peirce and the contemporary relevance of the problem of universals.
2. Peirce’s pragmaticism as a therapeutic method: how to make our ideas clear about some pseudo issues related to the problem of universals.
3-4. Peirce’s criticism of the spirit of Cartesianism and of nominalisms of all sorts.
5-6. Peirce’s realism of vagueness. Peirce’s relation to John Duns Scotus.
7. Universals and Logic (I). An introduction to Peirce’s major achievements in formal logic and their importance in the treatment of the problem of universals. The logic of relations; quantification and the status of individuals; the continuum as the real universal.
8-9. Universals and Logic(II). Logic and semiotic: vagueness.
10. Universals and Science. Peirce’s scholastic and scientific realism. Laws, dispositions. The epistemological significance of indeterminism and fallibilism.
11. Universals and Metaphysics (I) The categories: from a logical to a phenomenological approach.
12. Universals and Metaphysics (II). Peirce’s  project of a scientific metaphysics.
13. Peirce and the problem of universals today: further reflexions on the relations between logic, science and metaphysics.

Texts required for the course:

Most of the texts will be selected from:

The Essential Peirce (2 vols.) edited by The Peirce Edition Project, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press (Volume 1: 1992. Volume 2: 1998).
Reasoning and the Logic of Things, K. L. Ketner (ed.), Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1992.

Further Readings on the Problem of Universals:

D. M. Armstrong. Universals: An Opinionated introduction. Focus Series, Westview Press, Boulder, Sans Francisco, London, 1989.
M. Loux. “The Problem of Universals” in Metaphysics, a Contemporary Introduction, Routledge, London and New York, 1998.
D.H. Mellor and A. Oliver (eds.). Properties, Oxford Readings in Philosophy, 1999.
J. P. Moreland. Universals, Central Problems of Philosophy, Acumen, 2001.
T. Williamson. Vagueness; Routledge, London, 1994.