An Introduction to the Philosophy of Charles S. Peirce : Interpreted As a System

In the twenty-four years since this book was first published, interest in the philosophy of Charles S. Peirce has grown considerably. He has been widely recognized as the father of pragmatism, a precursor of symbolic logic, and a worker in the field of the philosophy of science. Naturally enough, Mr. Feibleman devotes proper attention to these areas. Moreover, he details Peirce's less well-known contributions to metaphysics, ethics, and psychology.

The book has two aims. The first is to offer an introduction to the general philosophy of Peirce. The second has to do with the system implicit in Peirce's work. His writings were certainly unorganized, even though his ideas were not. Because of the kind of man he was, or perhaps because of the restraining force of adverse circumstances, but probably due to a combination of both causes, Peirce himself never formulated his system, though more than once he made plans to do so. His fault was one of method of presentation, not one of thought. In other words, Peirce had a systematic philosophy which he set down unsystematically. His scattered papers make a convincing argument that their sole purpose is to perfect an implicit system of philosophy. Mr. Feibleman's purpose is to make the implicit explicit.

"Mr. Feibleman has performed a most valuable work in presenting to the public a systematic exposition of Charles Peirce's philosophy. Peirce himself, like Leibniz, gave to the world only fragments of his system, with the result that he has been very thoroughly misunderstood, not least by those who professed to be his admirers.... Mr. Feibleman deserves the grateful thanks of all students of philosophy."
—Bertrand Russell