Abstract

For Charles S. Peirce (1839-1914), the founder of philosophical pragmatism and modern semiotics, there was no antagonism between literary and scientific discourse. Both literary and scientific texts are signs that propose arguments by means of symbols, indices, and icons. Similarly, scientific and literary arguments exert an autonomous semiotic agency and create realities of their own. The paper presents Peirce as a scientist as well as a reader and critic of world literature and gives an outline of his semiotic trivium of speculative grammar, critical logic, and speculative rhetoric and its applicability to the study of literary discourse.

Keywords
literature and philosophy; Charles S. Peirce; Literary semiotics; speculative grammar; critical logic; speculative rhetoric; interpretation