Charles Sanders Peirce

Charles Sanders Peirce was an American philosopher, logician, and scientist who founded pragmatism and semiotics. He argued that the meaning of a concept lies in its practical consequences and made foundational contributions to formal logic and the philosophy of science.

Though largely unpublished and unrecognised in his lifetime, Peirce's influence on William James, John Dewey, and twentieth-century philosophy of language was immense. His theory of signs (semiotics) has shaped linguistics, communication theory, and cognitive science.