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Now Pitching: C.S. Peirce
AMST310 SP

This course is a study of the life and work of Charles Sanders Peirce: teacher, philosopher, scientist, mathematician, logician, metaphysician, aesthetician. We shall pay particular attention to the interrelationships among Peirce's multitudinous activities and interests by making transdisciplinary diagrams of his conceptual universe. We shall investigate the hypothesis that Peirce's relentless pursuit of the moral and aesthetic integrity of all knowledge led him into the esoteric, with the consequence that he was ostracized from the academy and, in great measure, from intellectual history. We shall argue, in short, that the tragedy of Peirce's life mirrors the tragedy of the decline of the liberal arts in American institutions of higher learning. Throughout the course we shall use baseball as a point of application for Peirce's thought, in the process interpreting baseball as an expression of a particular American metaphysical style and as a design for the re-establishment of the liber al arts

MAJOR READINGS

PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS OF PEIRCE (ed. Justus Buchler) CHARLES S. PEIRCE, SELECTED WRITINGS (ed. Philip P. Wiener) Joseph Brent, CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE: A LIFE Other papers from Peirce's collected published and manuscript work Robert Coover, THE UNIVERSAL BASEBALL ASSOCIATION Eric Greenberg, THE CELEBRANT Gertrude Stein, THE GEOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF AMERICA (extracts) Herman Melville, PIERRE, OR THE AMBIGUITIES

EXAMINATIONS AND ASSIGNMENTS

No examinations. Mandatory attendance.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS and/or COMMENTS

No particular previous training is required. Students considering taking the course, however, should understand that it ranges freely over the curriculum, and that reluctance on the part of a a student to engage in serious study (remedial if necessary) of any significant number of disciplines is likely to be an obstacle to that student doing productive work in the course. Unless preregistered students attend the first class meeting or communicate directly with the instructor prior to the first class, they will be dropped from the class list. NOTE: Students must still submit a completed Drop/Add form to the Registrar's Office.

COURSE FORMAT: Lecture

REGISTRATION INFORMATION

Level: UGRD    Credit: 1    Gen Ed Area Dept: HA MUSC    Grading Mode: Graded   

Prerequisites: NONE

Last Updated on MAR-24-2000

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