Charles Peirce's pragmatism and its significance in education

Abstract

It may prove somewhat helpful, in the understanding of, Charles Sanders Peirce's writings, to include some brief biographical comment on the man. Peirce was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on September 10, 1839, the second son of Benjamin and Sarah Peirce. His father, a professor of mathematics at Harvard, was the foremost mathematician of his time in America, The father took pains to give his brilliant son a superior training in the theory and practice of experimental science, mathematics, logic, and philosophy. It is reported that the father tried to teach the son the art of concentration "at a tender age" by playing rapid games of double dummy with him that lasted from 10:00 P.M. till dawn. It is also reported that when Charles began to read philosophers in his teens, his father would get him to repeat their proofs "and in a very few words would usually rip them up and show them empty."