C.I. Lewis? a significant figure in American pragmatism

tracing lines of influence and affinities of themes and ideas

Kegley

pp. 11-33

in: Peter Olen, Carl Sachs (eds), Pragmatism in transition, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017

Abstract

This chapter situates Lewis within the history of American pragmatism in two major respects. First, it explains in detail how Lewis was strongly influenced by the epistemology and logical theory of Peirce and Royce. Specific attention is paid to how Lewis's theory of the pragmatic a priori is best understood as an explication and clarification of earlier pragmatist themes. Second, it shows that Quine, who was influenced by Lewis in several respects, was much less of a pragmatist than Lewis himself was. Philosophers interested in the neopragmatist tradition descending from Quine should therefore take much more sustained interest in Lewis.

Cited authors

Peirce Charles Sanders

Quine Willard Van Orman