Abstract
It is sometimes said that the highest philosophical gift is to invent important new philosophical problems. If so, Peirce is a major star on the firmament of philosophy. By thrusting the notion of abduction to the forefront of philosophers’ consciousness he created a problem which — I will argue — is the central one in contemporary epistemology.
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References
Peirce is referred to in the usual editions (Collected Papers, Writings, Eisele, Buchler, etc.).
I have also used the following Peirce MSS, copies of which were kindly made available to me by the Peirce Edition Project: “On the Logic of drawing History from Ancient Documents, especially from Testimonies” (MS 690). This is a thick typescript that Peirce first handwrote in October and November 1901; it was typed by the secretary of his friend Francis Lathrop in early December 1901. The seventh Harvard lecture of 1903, left untitled by Peirce (MS 315). In Essential Peirce 2, it will be titled “Pragmatism as the Logic of Abduction.” “An Essay toward improving our Reasoning in Security & in Uberty” (MS 682). This is one of several essays Peirce wrote at the end of his life on the topic of the fruitfulness of arguments. Eight pages (numbered 4 to 11 by Peirce — pp. 1–3 are missing) from MS 683, an untitled manuscript that might have borne the same title as the previous document. It, too, bears upon the topic of uberty, and should also be dated September – October 1913.
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Hintikka, J. (1999). What is Abduction? The Fundamental Problem of Contemporary Epistemology. In: Inquiry as Inquiry: A Logic of Scientific Discovery. Jaakko Hintikka Selected Papers, vol 5. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9313-7_4
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