Learning versus teaching

Charles Sanders Peirce and the american university at the end of the XIX century

Abstract

For Charles Sanders Peirce (1838-1914), the criterion for the intellectual work and for the conduct of the life of a thinker was absolute rigor in the construction of concepts and strict experimental verification - this outlook caused a complete separation of scientific and philosophical work from any apologetic function. The view that all knowledge of the world of experience and even the knowledge elaborated by Mathematics is intrinsically probable and fallible opposed every and any dogmatism and even the "a priori" of the Kantian tradition. The interest for the evolutionary theory and the unshakable coherence of Pierce's philosophy and attitudes as a professor and a researcher arose strong resistance in the university and editorial world of his time. At a time of serious crises in the North-American university which came as a consequence of the political and economic developments after the Civil War (1861-1965), Peirce's firm position certainly brought about his dismissal from Harvard and John Hopkins Universities, as it also made it difficult for him to publish and it also contributed to his total isolation in the last years of his life.