C.S. Peirce, God, and Realism: the neglected crossroads of science and religion

Abstract

This paper presents an integration of science, art, and religion according to lines suggested by Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), the scientist, philosopher, and mathematician still considered by many to be America's leading native intellect, to date. Here, religion and art, following Peirce, are taken to be presuppositions of scientific inquiries. The logic of such inquiries, not limited solely to laboratory investigations but in fact universal in application, is also known as Pragmatism. This method of Pragmatism, as elaborated by Peirce, makes for America's only native philosophical doctrine.In the course of discussing this interdisciplinary integration of science, art, and religion, we shall look into the subjects of abductive reasoning, Peirce's categories of reality and experience, the difference between Realism and Nominalism, and the distinction between argument and argumentation. Historically relevant figures including artists Titian and John Constable, scientists Alexander Fleming and Johannes Kepler, and philosophers Sir Karl Popper and Peirce himself, will be considered. The paper ends with close attention being given to Peirce's "Neglected Argument for the Reality of God" (The Hibbert Journal: October 1908), especially for its pragmatical logic and its subtle, suggestive, integrational power.