Charles Sanders Peirce is my favorite philosopher. His interests are capacious, his texts are dense and bristling with insights, and he is one of the few philosophers whose thinking about questions of language, reasoning, and the imagination can contribute to a deeper appreciation of art as a rigorous and necessary practice of inquiry. While many notable thinkers and writers have delved deeply into his work, he remains to many an intimidating or inaccessible thinker.
Becuase he never published a completed book and failed to attain the institutional visibility of other pragmatists like James, Royce, and Dewey, knowing where to start reading Peirce is tough. This lecture by Grant Franks of St. John’s College is a clear starting point. Have no fear there is little French-inspired talk here of sign, symbol and index here!