On C. S. Peirce?s Definitive Idea of Mathematical Logic

JAVIER LEGRIS

Paderborn

Congreso; Colloquium Logicum 2012; 2012

Deutsche Vereinigung für Mathematische Logik und für Grundlagenforschung der Exakten Wissenschaften (DVMLG)

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839 - 1914) was one of the grounding fathers of mathematical logic. He developed in an algebraic framework a logic system for quantification and relational reasoning that counts as a prototype of what is now called First Order Logic. Following the English School of the Algebra of Logic, this logic system was the result of a mathematical analysis of logic, called by Peirce exact logic. Now, due to philosophical reasons (the same reasons that led him to his semiotic theory), he became later dissatisfied with the algebraic notation for logic and, in the last period of his thinking, he followed a diagrammatic approach to logic, leading to the system of his Existential Graphs. The aim of this paper is to show that, from Peirce?s point of view, this diagrammatic system was the true result of the application of mathematics to logic.