Charles Peirce: “…my brain must be different…”

Abstract

Charles Peirce regularly stated and complained that his thinking processes were not like those of other people. Peirce accounted for his mental difficulty with the notion that he was left-handed. Neurologists consulted in this study note that one in seven people is left-handed, and that the thought processes of left-handed people are not noticeably different from right-handed people. Joseph Brent in his biography of Charles Peirce accounts for Peirce’s mental anomalies with the claim that Peirce suffered from a manic-depressive disorder or what today is called bipolar disorder. This article challenges that conclusion. The argument is that Peirce suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome. The hypothesis that Peirce had Asperger’s Syndrome results in a slightly different view of Peirce’s biography, possibly making him more understandable and possibly a bit more acceptable as aperson.