Peirce’s Science of Economics and Economics of Science

Abstract This book is a historical and philosophical examination of the engagement of the American pragmatist philosopher, logician, and scientist Charles S. Peirce with economics. It reconstructs how he came to possess a cutting-edge knowledge of mathematical economics at the dawn of the so-called marginalist revolution in the 1870s and how he used that knowledge in concrete applications, in particular in providing an economic analysis of scientific research. It addresses Peirce’s understanding of economics as a science, its place among other sciences, and ultimately—if indirectly—its influence on contemporary economics. It documents how Peirce originated the economics of science as part of resolving methodological problems that arose in his work of measuring gravity. It demonstrates how his deep understanding of economics shaped his work in logic, particularly his analysis of abduction, which presaged modern scientific modeling. It traces how Peirce came to see economics as central to his the general philosophy of science and to pragmaticism, his unique scientific understanding of pragmatism.