Signs of Logic Peircean Themes on the Philosophy of Language, Games, and Communication

"[...] a "must-have" for both the Peircean scholar and any other philosopher who wishes to relate Peirce's thinking on language and logic to other major thinkers and logical themes of the twentieth century (and beyond)."

Robert W. Burch, Texas A&M University, USA, in 'Project Muse - Scholarly Journals Online'

"Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen’s
Signs of Logic
is a ground-breaking contribution to Peircean semiotics, impressive in its scope and depth. It is the first book where Peirce’s pragmatic theory of meaning, logic of existential graphs, and theory of communication are presented in a unified game-theoretical framework. This work is indispensable to all serious students of Peirce’s philosophy of logic, language, and communication."


Risto Hilpinen, Professor of Philosophy, University of Miami, Coral Gables, USA


"Charles Peirce, America’s great scientific philosopher, was convinced that his late logic could contribute significantly to ‘man’s future intellectual development’, but he never got the chance to make his case. Now, a century later, Pietarinen shows that Peirce was right and that Peirce’s semiotic and logic can inform the theory of games and strategy and contribute to a general theory of intelligent agency. This is cutting edge philosophy and it is much to Pietarinen’s credit that he has been able to find such up-to-date relevance and significance in Peirce’s century old writings."


Nathan Houser, Professor of Philosophy, Director of the Institute for American Thought, Director and General Editor of the Peirce Edition Project



"In this magisterial work Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen has performed the valuable service of demonstrating the extent that Peirce’s logic admits of systematic expression, notwithstanding the scatter and fragmentariness of his writings. Even more impressive is the success of
Signs of Logic
in establishing Peirce’s remarkableprescience as anticipator of developments ranging from game-theoretic logic to dialogue logic, from Gricean pragmatics to the economics of cognitive practice, and so on.
Signs of Logic
is essential reading for the Peirce scholar and for any one interested in the development of logic in the century just past and beyond."


John Woods, Professor, FRSC, Dept. of Philosophy, University of British Columbia, Canada, and Charles S. Peirce Professor of Logic, Dept. of Computer Science, King’s College London, UK



"Pietarinen’s book fills an important void in the contemporary understanding of Peirce’s logical heritage. Its thorough intertwining of Peirce’s game-theoretic ideas and Peirce’s existential graphs opens up an immense panorama. Combining precision and perspective, mathematical detail and philosophical architectonics, the work presents one of the best available accounts of Peirce’s kinetic thought."

Fernando Zalamea, Profesor Asociado, Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Nacional de Colombia