Charles Peirce

Charles Sanders/Santiago Peirce

Life

Charles Sanders Peirce was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the son of Sarah and Benjamin Peirce. His father was a professor of astronomy and mathematics at Harvard University, and arguably the first serious research mathematician in America. Peirce obtained one of the first MSc degrees in America, in chemistry. He was employed as a scientist by the United States Coast Survey (1859–1891), working especially in geodesy and in gravimetry, refining the practice of pendulum determinations. During the 1870s, he worked in Harvard's astronomical observatory.

Related Topics:
Cambridge, Massachusetts - Benjamin Peirce - Astronomy - Mathematics - Harvard University - United States Coast Survey - 1859 - 1891 - Geodesy - Gravimetry - Pendulum

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Peirce never obtained a tenured academic position. Peirce's academic ambitions may have been frustrated by his reportedly difficult personality; Brent (1998) conjectures that Peirce may have been manic-depressive. Peirce's first wife, Harriet Melusina Fay, left him in 1876. He soon took up with Juliette Froissy, but did not marry her until Fay divorced him in 1884. The resulting scandal led to his dismissal from the only academic position he ever obtained, Lecturer in Logic at Johns Hopkins University. In 1887, Peirce used his inheritance from his parents to purchase a farm near Milford, Pennsylvania, where he spent the rest of his life, writing prolifically and struggling with grave financial difficulties. He had no children.

Related Topics:
Manic-depressive - Harriet Melusina Fay - Juliette Froissy - Johns Hopkins University - 1887 - Milford, Pennsylvania

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