Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy

T.L. Short's book argues that Peirce's early theory of signs was flawed, and that the development of his mature theories required a new start and the rejection of some fundamental doctrines from the earlier view. While agreeing that Peirce's view of signs changed and agreeing on the new developments that were of most significance, I express some doubts about Short's diagnosis of why such changes were required. I argue that the changes were required, not by internal inconsistencies in the earlier position, but rather by the need to come up with an adequate account of the role of experience in cognition.