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Friday, October 26, 9 am - 5 pm & Saturday, Oct. 27, 9 - 12 am
Poetry and Rare Books Collection, 420 Capen Hall
State University of New York at Buffalo

Although many scholars abroad and in this country consider C. S. Peirce to be one of the few authentic geniuses America has produced, much of his vast corpus remains unknown outside a small circle of specialists. Among the reasons for this deplorable situation is the fact that often his work is radically unconventional in both content and style. Another reason is that Peirce was a polymath who moved back and forth between philosophy, literature, mathematics, semiotics, physical science, history and much else.

Our focus in this conference will be on some manuscripts of Peirce that pose especially formidable problems. How are we to understand these writings? It has been suggested that we should be open to the possibility that sometimes Peirce was producing a mix of poetry, visual art, philosophy, mathematics and physical science. To discuss this possibility we have brought together literary scholars and philosophers of widely varying areas of expertise. Echoing the experimentalism of our subject, the structure of the conference program will be somewhat free form. No formal papers will be presented, and the schedule will be flexible.

Susan Howe and Peter Hare

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last updated 26 October 2002