WORKS BY KENNETH LAINE KETNER
Featured Books
All Books, Articles, and Special Projects
Symbol & Existence:
A Study in Meaning:
Explorations of Human Nature
written by Walker Percy
edited by Kenneth Laine Ketner, Karey Perkins, Rhonda McDonnell, and Scott Cunningham
Walker Percy's philosophy, his "radical anthropology," is a primary focus of his intellectual journey and the underpinning of all his novels. While other collections of his philosophical essays give some insights into his thinking, Symbol & Existence is the only methodical, systematic presentation of semiotic, his attempt to bridge the gap between scientism and existentialism. Written in the 1950s and never published, this seminal work was discovered half a century later and provides the foundation for Percy's later writings, both non-fiction and fiction.
Read Reviews HERE
Purchase Symbol & Existence HERE
His Glassy Essence:
An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce
by Kenneth Laine Ketner
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914), the most important and influential of the classical American philosophers, is credited as the inventor of the philosophical school of pragmatism. The scope and significance of his work have had a lasting effect not only in several fields of philosophy but also in mathematics, the history and philosophy of science, and the theory of signs, as well as in literary and cultural studies. Largely obscure until after his death, Peirce's life has long been a subject of interest and dispute. Unfortunately, previous biographies often confuse as much as they clarify crucial matters in Peirce's story. Ketner's new biographical project is remarkable not only for its entertaining aspects but also for its illuminating insights into Peirce's life, his thought, and the intellectual milieu in which he worked.
Read Chapter One HERE
Read Reviews HERE
Purchase His Glassy Essence HERE
Charles Sanders Peirce:
Man of Science
by Kenneth Laine Ketner
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) was, above all else, a scientist and a mathematician, as well as the founder of American Pragmat[ic]ism. His voluminous writings, estimated to fill over 100 volumes, are scattered among at least five academic holdings, with some written on scrap paper with handmade ink, others unsigned. However, his systematic thinking was not scattered at all. Here, Dr. Kenneth Laine Ketner presents Peirce's System of Science - from mathematics to philosophy to metaphysics (including religion and faith) - in a logical and coherent order and in Peirce's own words, so readers may better access and appreciate Peirce's insightful contributions to the world.
A Thief of Peirce:
The Letters of Kenneth Laine Ketner and Walker Percy
Edited by Patrick H. Samway, S.J.
20th century American novelist and philosopher, Dr. Walker Percy, contacts Charles Sanders Peirce expert, Dr. Kenneth Laine Ketner, with questions about Peirce's semiotic. What follows is a decade-long exchange of engaging and illuminating letters as Percy - and the readers - learn more about Charles Sanders Peirce's philosophy, and Percy's, as a "thief of Peirce," own unique appropriation of it.
This book is "admirable first of all for its good taste. It respects Walker Percy's privacy. . . . It offers fair readings, generous readings, and ultimately new and rewarding readings." --Lewis Lawson
Sample Ketner-Percy letters HERE
Read Reviews HERE
Purchase A Thief of Peirce HERE
Elements of Logic:
An Introduction to Peirce's Existential Graphs
By Kenneth Laine Ketner
This book is designed to provide an introduction to basic logic by means of Charles Sanders Peirce's semeiotic (pronounced "See my OH tick," approximately as the German "Semiotik" and the French "Semiotique" are pronounced). In his later years, Peirce conceived semeiotic as composed of three parts: Speculative Grammar (basic definitions), Critic (theory of argumentation), and Methodeutic (theory of objective method). (For an extended discussion of these divisions, see Ketner 1987.) In his mature work, Peirce also declared that logic and semeiotic were identical, understanding by "logic" something much broader than its meaning today. Throughout this work, the words Logic and Semeiotic are regarded as interchangeable. This interchangeability has, in recent years, instigated some disorientation: logicians and contemporary practitioners of semiotics especially have tended to think of semeiotic as disconnected from Peirce's path-breaking researches as one of the founders of contemporary formal logic. This disorientation will disappear, however, if we consider that Peirce's semeiotic/logic had certain features that logicians and semeioticians today are beginning to appreciate and study, although sometimes under other names.
Read Reviews HERE
To Purchase Elements of Logic or contact the Institute or email brianna.sanchez@ttu.edu
Reasoning and the Logic of Things:
Charles Sanders Peirce
Edited by Kenneth Laine Ketner
With an Introduction by Kenneth Laine Ketner & Hilary Putnam
Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) was an American philosopher, physicist, mathematician, and the founder of pragmatism. Despire his importance in the history of philosophy, a unified statment of his thought has been unavailable. With this publication, readers at long last are offered the philosopher's only known, complete, and coherent account of his own work. Originally delivered as the Cambridge Conferences Lectures of 1898, Reasoning and the Logic of Things is the most accessible and thorough introduction to Peirce's mature thought to be found within the compass of a single book.
Beginning with an explanation of the nature of philosophy, Peirce proceeds to illustrate his claim that mathematics provides the foundation of our logic and metaphysics. We find here the clearest formulation of an idea present in Peirce's thought since the 1860s, the distinction between three kinds of reasoning: induction, deduction, and retroduction. Then follows an introduction to Peirce's chief logical doctrines, as well as his attempts to provide a classification of the sciences, a theory of categories, and a theory of science. In conclusion, turning from "reasoning" to the "logic of things," Peirce called for an evolutionary cosmology to explain the reality of laws and described the kinds of reasoning he employed in developing this cosmology.
At the urging of his friend William James, Peirce made an uncharacteristic effort in these lectures to present his ideas in terms intelligible to a general audience--those without advanced training in logic and philosophy. The introductory materials by Ketner and Putman add to the volume's lucidity. Consequently, this book will be a valuable source for readers outside of the circle of Peirce specialists.
Read Reviews HERE
Purchase Reasoning and the Logic of Things HERE
Chance, Love, and Logic: Philosophical Essays
By Charles Sanders Peirce
Edited with an Introduction by Kenneth Laine Ketner
Charles S. Peirce, whom James, Royce, Dewey, and leading thinkers in England, France, Germany and Italy have placed in the forefront of the great seminal minds of recent times. Besides their inherent value as the expression of a highly original and fruitful mind, unusually well trained and informed in the exact sciences, these essays are also important as giving us the sources of a great deal of contemporary American philosophy. Because of this historical importance lo omissions or changes have been made in the text beyond the correction of some obvious slips and the recasting of a few expressions in the interest of intelligibility. In a subject which bristles with suggestions and difficulties the temptation to add notes of explanation or dis sent is almost insuperable. But as such notes might easily have doubled the size of this volume I have refrained from all comment on the text except in a few footnotes (indicated, as usual, in brackets). The introduction is intended (and I hope it will) help the reader to concatenate the various lines of thought contained in these essays. I can not pretend to have adequately indicated their significance.
Read Reviews HERE
Purchase Chance, Love, and Logic HERE
Peirce, Semeiotic, and Pragmatism:
Essays by Max H. Fisch
Edited by Kenneth Laine Ketner and Christian J. W. Kloesel
"This volume is a scholarly collection of massive biographical detail, much of which is being revealed for the first time." ―Isis
A selection of Fisch’s most important articles on these topics is presented here in a convenient format, including revisions and updating and a complete bibliography of Fisch’s published writings.
Purchase Peirce, Semeiotic, and Pragmatism HERE
The Published Works of Charles Sanders Peirce, digital 3rd edition with
A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Published Works of Charles Sanders Peirce
with a Bibliography of Secondary Studies, 1st and 2nd edition
By Kenneth Laine Ketner
This third edition and second edition of this title appears in digital format on the website (pragmaticism.net) of the Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism, College of Arts and Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock.
The first and second edition of the Published Works (PWcsp) and the included Comprehensive Bibliography (CB) were published in microfiche (PWcsp) and book (CB) format.
The method of preparation for the third digital edition involved first, transfer of the microfiche images of the second edition of PWcspD to Portable Document Format (PDF); this process was undertaken by Institute members Jerry Dozoretz and Joseph Ransdell. The transfer process introduced some poor images which will be corrected as the process of installing the website continues to unfold. Our intention is to make available now the usable images while the process of upgrading all images is in process. Also, in this version we will eventually introduce some recent additions to the currently known list of Peirce's publications.
Users will also find a HTML based index of the PDF images in this version; this index will allow clickable access to images in PWcspD for corresponding bibliographic identification numbers in CB. The bibliographic numbering system used in CB will continue in effect here. It would be useful to read the frontmatter of CB to become familiar with the conventions employed. (There are no images provided for bibliographic items in the secondary section of CB; these more recent items are usually routinely accessible through standard library methods.)
We request that persons using these resources in research works refer to item location as PWcspD while including the appropriate URL.
Using the digital edition:
View or download the Comprehensive Bibliography by clicking HERE. This link will take you to the Institute website. Scroll down "Charles S. Peirce Published Works Digital Archive" and click on "Comprehensive Bibliography" link.
A Triadic Theory of Elementary Particle Interactions and Quantum Computation
Ralph G. Beil and Kenneth Ketner
Lubbock: Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism, 2006.
ISBN 0-9667695-9-7
The table of contents (pdf) and introduction (pdf) are available.
Contact the Institute for ordering instructions.
PREFACE
This 50-page monograph summarizes an attempt to demonstrate that there are direct applications of Peirce's Logic of Relations, in particular, the Sign Relations, to the theory of elementary particles and their interactions. Further, the Peircean logic leads to new ideas on the construction of computers which function at the quantum level.
This application of Peircean logic is not surprising when one considers that Peirce was by profession an experimental and mathematical physicist over most of this productive years. It is reasonable that his work in logic might be applicable to physics. We do not speculate on why this application has not previously occurred. We also do not speculate how the direction of the currents of Twentieth Century physics might have been altered if Peircean logic had been understood and used. However, it is our hope that a reading of this monograph might inspire such speculation on the part of the reader.
Specifically, we show here that there is a direct correspondence betwen a bonding scheme of Peirce's triadic sign diagrams and a representation of interactions between elementary particles. Thus, a complete history of a set of interacting particles can be modeled by a set of interconnected triadic diagrams.
Also, we find that there are fortuitous physical parallels with Peirce's principles of Tychism (chance) and Synechism (continuity).
The resulting model is facilitated by some alternative concepts in elementary particle physics, including Einstein's needle radiation, advanced fields, Brittingham waves, and a wave function which can be interpreted as the amplitude of single particle fields rather than a probability distribution. This leads, incidentally, to the possible resolution of several ancient conundrums in quantum theory including hidden variables, spooky action at a distance, and collapse of the wave function.
We mentioned that a significant contribution of this description of elementary particle interactions is to provide a new rationale for the design of quantum computers. This application has led far enough to produce a United States patent (Beil and Ketner (2004)). This is appropriate indeed since Peirce himself designed an electrical computing machine (Ketner (1984, 1988)).
This monograph is written so as to require a background level not far beyond that of the "intelligent layperson," either in logic or physics. For example, there are no displayed equations. More detailed and technical versions of the material have been published or are in preparation (Beil and Ketner (2003, 2004), Beil (2004)).
Keywords: 1. Relational Calculus. 2. Particles (Nuclear Physics). 3. Quantum Computers. 4. Peirce, Charles S. (Charles Sanders), 1839-1914. 5. U.S. Patent 6819474.
The single volume cost for this title is $25 USD + $4.05 for US shipping (or $9.50 international), with discounts for quantities of five or more.
All proceeds from the sale of this volume are deposited to the Institute account in the Texas Tech University Foundation, a 501-3(c) nonprofit organization.
Peirce's Century Dictionary Definitions Digital Archive
https://www.depts.ttu.edu/pragmaticism/collections/index.php
Peirce wrote a great many definitions for the Century Dictionary. See the Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism's "Collections and Archives" page and scroll down to "Century Definitions" for a description of and link to this valuable resource.
To use (search for a term in) the Century Definitions tool, you will need to install the DJVu Plugin first (similar to Acrobat Reader to read a PDF).:
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Use this link for a PC: DJVu plugin for PC
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Use this link for a Mac: DJVu plugin for Mac, then:
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Go directly to Century Definitions page
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Put your word in the search box.
Happy searching!
US Patent 6819474
Triadic Quantum Switches and Circuits
Peirce / Beil / Ketner
TEXAS TECH RESEARCHERS RECEIVE PATENT FOR NEW COMPUTER LOGIC SWITCH
Press Release
March 28, 2005
Scott Slemmons, scott.slemmons@ttu.edu
LUBBOCK - Two Texas Tech investigators have received a patent for a new concept for computer logic switches that could revolutionize computing in the 21st century.
Dr. Kenneth Laine Ketner, Paul Whitfield Horn Professor and director of the Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism at Texas Tech, and Dr. Ralph G. Beil, an institute member, have designed new methods and switches that have been trademarked as Trisistors.
While most of today's computers operate on a binary system, the patent describes a trinary system that includes binary capabilities, but which also supports additional features allowing computers to work faster and more flexibly.
Trisistors and associated methods were inspired in part by the work of an early 20th century physicist, chemist, and logician, Charles S. Peirce. An internationally recognized scientist employed by the U.S. government, Peirce was one of the earliest members of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
Credited with early discoveries in computing and artificial intelligence, he referred to his approach in general as Pragmaticism. He developed the theory of signs, a proposal for understanding communication, meaning, logic and intelligence.
"We have shown that Peirce's theory of signs can be applied directly to elementary particle interactions," said Beil, the senior author of the patent. "An aspect of our patent is that elementary particles such as photons and electrons can be used as carriers and processors of information. This is also proposed in previous designs; however, those designs involve multiparticle or parallel states with two (binary) values. Our designs involve single particles or sequential states with possibly more than two values each."
Ketner said the technology can be implemented using current laboratory methods.
"The patent also includes a general procedure for designing future devices," he said. "We refer to this as the PBK (Peirce-Beil-Ketner) Method. We think this approach will facilitate development of additional trinary devices."
Beil emphasized that the patent gives designs for, not the next generation of computers, but the generation after that. Ketner proposes that the PBK method may be useful in the further study and application of artificial intelligence.
A Texas Limited Liability Company, ArisbeTools LLC, has been formed by Texas Tech University, the inventors and supporters. It will hold the patent and other associated intellectual property.
Dr. William Marcy, who holds an interdisciplinary doctorate in engineering and computer science and is provost at Texas Tech University, said the new patented technology will greatly expand the tradeoffs between the quantity of data that can be computed and the speed at which the computation can be made.
"The computing capability of a laptop today could be handled in a device the size of a dime," he said, "and the laptop of the future could have the computing capability of one of today's supercomputers."
Marcy said the research represents the modern-day equivalent to the invention of transistors, which replaced vacuum tubes in electronic devices in the 1960s. From transistors came the integrated circuit technology that drives hundreds of electronic devices now in everyday use.
"I believe that Ketner and Beil have reached that same point in understanding that will lead to a new revolution in electronics," Marcy said. "Imagine where we were in 1960 and then extrapolate to where we are today. That is the significance of this patent."
Beil and Ketner have recently published two articles in The International Journal of Theoretical Physics which show how Peirce's logic applies to the description of single particle quantum states.
CONTACT: Dr. Kenneth Laine Ketner, Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism, Texas Tech University, (806) 742-3128, or e-mail kenneth.ketner@ttu.edu.
Books and Projects
Click on linked titles for more information about the book or to purchase.
Charles Sanders Peirce: Man of Science: A Self-Introduction. 2020.
Symbol & Existence: A Study in Meaning: Explorations of Human Nature. Walker Percy (author), edited by Kenneth L. Ketner, Karey Perkins, Rhonda McDonnell, and Scott Cunningham. Mercer University Press, 2019.
A Triadic Theory of Elementary Particle Interactions and Quantum Computation. R.G. Beil and K.L. Ketner. Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism: Lubbock, 2006.
The Ralph Gregory Beil Memorial Volume, Peirce Studies number 9. General Editor. Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism, Texas Tech University: Lubbock, publication date 2012 (appeared in 2013, delay caused by a tornado at the Thompson-Shore printing firm), published on the Claude Ventry Bridges Memorial Fund.
Quantum Switches and Devices. U. S. Patent number 6,819,474, R. G. Beil and K. L. Ketner, granted 2004.
Reasoning and the Logic of Things (in Cyrillic). Moscow: Press of the Russian State University, 2005, Trans. Professor Delir Lakhuti et al. This is the Russian translation of Reasoning and the Logic of Things, Peirce’s Cambridge Conferences Lectures of 1898 first published by Harvard University Press in 1992 under my editorship.
Das Denken und die Logik des Universums, Suhrkamp Verlag: Frankfurt am Main, 2002. This is the German translation of Reasoning and the Logic of Things, Peirce’s Cambridge Conferences Lectures of 1898 first published by Harvard University Press in 1992 under my editorship.
Le Raisonnement et la Logique des Choses. (French Translation of Reasoning and Logic of Things). Paris: Les Editions du Cerf. 1995.
Reasoning and the Logic of Things (translated into simplified Chinese). Fudan University Press. 2020.
The Correspondence of Charles S. Peirce and Victoria Lady Welby. General Editor, second edition of Charles S. Hardwick’s Semiotic and Significs. Elsah, IL: The Press of Arisbe Associates, 2001.
CD-ROM Edition of Comprehensive Bibliography of Peirce’s Published Works and his book reviews for The Nation (more than 300 reviews), Charlottesville, VA: Intelex, 1999.
Chance Love and Logic: Philosophical Essays by the Late Charles S. Peirce, The Founder of Pragmatism, edited and introduced by Morris R. Cohen; with an essay by John Dewey; introduction to the Bison Books Edition by Kenneth Laine Ketner. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, Bison Books, 1998.
His Glassy Essence: An Autobiography of Charles Sanders Peirce. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1998, xiv + 418 pages, 2 end maps, 20 illustrations, preface, epilogue, notes, bibliography, and index.
Identification and Definition of a Preliminary Concept for a Semeiotic Control System Based on Peircean Engineering Principles. Technical Memorandum prepared under contract with Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems. Lubbock: Arisbe Associates, 1998. Pp. 89, figures, six appendices.
An Examination of Redenbarger’s Report, Published 31 October 1995, and the Proceedings of the Workshop on Russian Situation Control, Published 31 March 1996: The Crucial Distinction between Semiotics and Semeiotic. Prepared under contract for Army Research Laboratory, White Sands Missile Range, Contract DAALO1-96-M-PO93, October 1996.
A Thief of Peirce: The Letters of Kenneth Laine Ketner and Walker Percy, edited by Patrick Samway, S.J. Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 1995.
Peirce and Contemporary Thought: Philosophical Inquiries, edited by K.L. Ketner. The Bronx: Fordham University Press, 1995.
Reasoning and the Logic of Things: The 1898 Cambridge Conferences Lectures by Charles Sanders Peirce, edited by K.L. Ketner, with an introduction by K.L. Ketner and Hilary Putnam, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992.
Elements of Logic, an introductory logic book featuring Peirce's Existential Graphs, with self-paced learning software, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1990 — now distributed by Arisbe Associates, PO Box 607, Lubbock, TX 79408.
Charles Sanders Peirce: Le raisonnement et la logique des choses, Les conferences de Cambridge (1898). Edition anglo-americaine par Kenneth Laine Ketner, Introduction par Kenneth Laine Ketner et Hilary Putnam. Traduction francaise de l’anglais par Christiane Chauvire, Pierre Thibaud, et Claudine Tiercelin. Paris: Les editions du Cerf, 1995. This is the French translation of Reasoning and the Logic of Things, Peirce’s Cambridge Conferences Lectures of 1898 first published by Harvard University Press in 1992 under my editorship.
Charles Sanders Peirce: Contributions to The Nation, Part Four, Index. Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1987.
Peirce, Semeiotic, and Pragmatism: Essays by Max Harold Fisch, edited by K.L. Ketner and C.J.W. Kloesel, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986.
A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Published Works of Charles Sanders Peirce, second edition revised, edited by K.L. Ketner, Bowling Green, OH: Philosophy Documentation Center, 1986.
Principal Editor, Proceedings of the Charles S. Peirce Bicentennial International Congress,
Charles Sanders Peirce: Contributions to the Nation, Part Three, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, James Edward Cook co-editor, 1979.
Charles Sanders Peirce: Contributions to the Nation, Part Two, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, James Edward Cook co-editor, 1978.
A Comprehensive Bibliography and Index of the published Works of Charles Sanders Peirce, with a bibliography of secondary studies (337 pages), Kenneth Laine Ketner, General Editor and Editor for Primary Materials, Greenwich CT; Johnson Associates Inc., 1977.
Charles Sanders Peirce: Complete Published Works, microfiche collection (14,000 pages filmed on 149 fiche), Kenneth Laine Ketner, General Editor and Editor for Primary Materials, Greenwich CT: Johnson Associates Inc., 1977.
Charles Sanders Peirce: Contributions to The Nation, Part One, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, James Edward Cook co-editor, 1975.
An Emendation of R.G. Collingwood's Doctrine of Absolute Presuppositions, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 1973.
An Essay on the Nature of World Views, Ph.D. Dissertation, Philosophy, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1972.
A Critical Study of Stephen C. Pepper's Approach to Metaphysics. M.A. Thesis, Philosophy, Oklahoma State University, 1967.
Articles, Book Chapters, and Smaller Projects
Click on the title links to access a full .PDF of each article/chapter.
"A Survey of Semeiotic as Practice of Interdisciplinary Reasoning." Linguistic Frontiers (Czech Republic). Forthcoming.
"Non-self-conscious Interpretants within the Biology of Mind," Festschrift for Claudine Tiercelin (Paris). Forthcoming.
"The Emergence of Walker Percy’s Radical Anthropology," South Atlantic Review, South Atlantic Modern Language Association, Winter 2022, Vol. 84.7. pp. 98-114.
In Walker Percy, Philosopher. Edited by Leslie Marsh. Palgrave-Macmillan, 2018.
"The Albert W. Hull Memorial Dynatron Regenerative Receiver," Electric Radio Magazine #372, Symbolic Publishing Company, May 2020. pp. 26-36. https://www.ermag.com/
“Betagraphic: An Alternative Formulation of Predicate Calculus," (co-authors: Elize Bisanz, Scott R Cunningham, Clyde Hendrick, Levi Johnson, Kenneth Laine Ketner, Thomas McLaughlin, Michael O’Boyle), accepted for publication in Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society , volume 34. 2011).
"Toward Understanding the 'Biology of Mind' Hypothesis," (co-authors: Elize Bisanz, Scott R Cunningham, Clyde Hendrick, Levi Johnson, Thomas McLaughlin). Interdisciplinary Seminar on Peirce, Peirce Studies, Vol. 10, 2018, pp. 17-57.
"Peirce's Root Metaphor within His Experimental Study of Semeiosis." Peirce Studies, Vol. 10, 2018, pp. 176-187.
“Peirce’s NonReduction and Relational Completeness Claims in the Context of First-Order Predicate Logic,” Interdisciplinary Seminar on Peirce (co-authors: Elize Bisanz, Scott R Cunningham, Clyde Hendrick, Levi Johnson, Kenneth Laine Ketner, Thomas McLaughlin, Michael O’Boyle), KODIKAS/CODE: Ars Semeiotica, volume 34 (2011), number 1-2, 3-14. Publication date: 2012.
"Semeiotic." In Das Bild zwischen Kognition und Kreativitat: Interdisziplinare Zugange zum bildhaften Denken. Edited by Elise Bisanz. transcript Verlag, Bielefeld. 2011.
“Charles Sanders Peirce: Interdisciplinary Scientist.” The Logic of Interdisciplinarity: The Monist-Series. Edited by Elize Bisanz. Deutsche Zeitschrift fuer Philosophie, Sonderband 20. Akademie Verlag, 2009. pp. 35-57.
“Peirce and Plato,” in Platonic Traditions in American Thought, International Neoplatonic Society, University Press of the South: New Orleans, 2008.
Completion of a server-driven version (using JAVA) of the interactive software for teaching logic (the existing version functions on one computer at a time). My function was that of system designer and oversight for the programmer. In Spring 2008, the software was successfully beta tested by students in NURS 5330 (Nursing Theories). This new version will allow multiple access by standard browsers from any location through the internet.
“[John] Walker Percy.” Entry on Walker Percy for Dictionary of Modern American Philosophers, Bristol: Thoemmes Press, 2005.
“Charles Sanders Peirce: Physicist and Nonphilosopher.” I was invited as a featured speaker for the Beijing Conference on Charles Peirce (June 2005), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. I was unable to travel to Beijing; however, a colleague from China, Liuwha Zhang, translated my paper into Chinese and read it for me at the conference. After his presentation, the editors of the Chinese journal World Philosophy in attendance asked to publish it (appeared in the November 2005 issue). The presentation and published essay are both entitled “Charles Sanders Peirce: Physicist and Nonphilosopher.”
“Our Addictions,” Contemporary Pragmatism, June 2004, volume 1, number 1, 159-169.
“Peirce, Clifford, and Quantum Theory,” R. G. Beil and K. L. Ketner, International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Volume 42, number 9, September 2003, 1957-1972.
“Carolyn Eisele (1902-2000),” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, Fall 2001, volume 37, number 4, pages 475-89.
“To Take the Writer's Meaning: Peirce and Modern Semiotic," by Walker Percy: With an Introduction by Kenneth Laine Ketner,” Doubletake, winter 2001-2002, pages 52-58.
“Rescuing Science from Scientism,” The Intercollegiate Review, vol. 35, no. 1, Fall 1999, pp. 22-27.
"That Mysterious Phenomenon": The Affect of Percy's Works upon Readers. Paper Presentation at Fifth Annual Walker Percy Symposium, St. Tammany Parish Public Library, Covington, Louisiana, 20 April 1996.
“An Implicit World View in Technology and Its Consequences for Contemporary Life,” Nursing Outlook: The Official Journal of the American Academy of Nursing, volume 44: 280-283, 1996.
“Pragmaticism is an Existentialism?” In Frontiers in American Philosophy, volume II, edited by Robert W. Burch and Herman J. Saatkamp Jr., College Station: Texas A&M University Press, pages 105-111, 1996.
“Novel Science, or How Contemporary Social Science is not Well and Why Literature and Semeiotic Provide a Cure,” Semiotica, 93: 33-59, 1993.
“Peirce’s Sentimental Conservatism,” in Logic and Political Culture, edited by E.M. Barth and E.C.W. Krabbe, Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1992.
“Hartshorne and the Basis of Peirce's Categories,” invited chapter in Hartshorne, Process Philosophy, and Theology, edited by R. Kane and S.H. Phillips, Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989.
“Toward an Understanding of Peirce's Master Argument,” invited paper for Cruzeiro Semiotico, [special issue on Peirce, in the journal of the Portuguese Semiotic Society, under the editorship of J. Rethore, France], 8:57-66, 1988.
“The Importance of Religion for Peirce,” invited paper for Gedankenzeichen, edited by R. Claussen and R. Daube-Schackat, Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 1988, pp. 267-272.
Book note on Hoibraeten and Gulvag, Essays in Pragmatic Philosophy, Ethics, 98:421, 1988.
“Peirce and Turing: Comparisons and Conjectures,” Semiotica, 68:33-61, 1988.
“Identifying Peirce's 'Most Lucid and Interesting Paper',” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 23:539-555, 1987.
“Peirce's Most Lucid and Interesting Paper: An Introduction to Cenopythagoreanism,” International Philosophical Quarterly, 26:375-392, 1986.
“Semiotic is an Observational Science — See for Yourself: Developing Skills with Part of Peirce's Beta Existential Graphs,” invited paper, in Iconicity, edited by P. Bouissac, M. Herzfeld, and R. Posner, Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, 1986.
“How Hintikka Misunderstood Peirce's Account of Theorematic Reasoning,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 21:407-418, 1985.
“Peirce, Charles Sanders (1839-1914),” The Social Science Encyclopedia edited by Adam and Jessica Kuper, London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, pp. 580-581, 1985.
“The Early History of Computer Design: Charles Sanders Peirce and Marquand's Logical Machines,” with the assistance of A. Stewart, The Princeton Library Chronicle, 45:186-224, 1984.
“Peirce on Diagrammatic Thought: Some Consequences for Contemporary Semiotic Science,” in K. Oehler editor, Zeichen und Realität, Tübingen: Stauffenburg Verlag, pp. 305-319, 1984.
“Logic or Semiotic: Musement on a 1882 Peirce Lecture,” RSSI, Journal of the Canadian Semiotic Association, 3:335-350, 1983
“A Brief Intellectual Autobiography by Charles Sanders Peirce,” edited and annotated by K.L. Ketner, special double issue on Peirce, American Journal of Semiotics, 2: 61-84, 1983.
“Who was Charles S. Peirce, and Does He Deserve our Homage?” Krisis, special issue on “Homage to Peirce,” 1: 10-18, 1983.
“Some Preliminary Thoughts on the Concept of Professionalism,” Proceedings of the Southwest Park and Recreation Training Institute, Texas Tech University, 1982.
“Peirce's Existential Graphs as the Basis for an Introduction to Logic: Semiosis in the Logic Classroom,” in Semiotics 1980, edited by Herzfeld and Lenhart, New York: Plenum Press, pp. 231-240, 1982.
“Carolyn Eisele's Place in Peirce Studies,” Historia Mathematica, 9: 326-332, 1982.
“Semiotic and Folkloristics,” Zeichenkonstitution: Akten des 2. Semiotischen Kolloquiums Regensburg 1978 edited by A. Lange-Seidl, vol. 1, pp. 129-132, 1981.
“Peirce as an Interesting Failure?” in Proceedings of the C.S. Peirce Bicentennial International Congress, Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, pp. 55-58, 1981.
“Peirce's Ethics of Terminology,” Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 17:327-347, 1981.
“The Best Example of Semiosis and its use in Teaching Semiotics,” American Journal of Semiotics, 1:47-84, 1981.
Review of Studies in the Scientific and Mathematical Philosophy of Charles S. Peirce: Essays by Carolyn Eisele, edited by R.M. Martin, published in Annali Dell' Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenza, 5:138-140, 1980.
Review of The Study of American Folklore: An Introduction by Jan Harold Brunvand. In Western Folklore,.Vol. 39, No. 2, pp. 130-133. April 1980.
Review of Text and Context: The Social Anthropology of Tradition, edited by Ravindra K. Jain, Journal of American Folklore, 93:202-204, 1980.
“The New Tools of Peirce Scholarship, with Particular Reference to Semiotic,” in Studies in Peirce's Semiotic, Peirce Studies, no. 1, Institute for Studies in Pragmaticism, 1-18, co– authored with M.H. Fisch and C.J.W. Kloesel, 1979.
“Identity and Existence in the Study of Human Tradition,” Folklore, 87:64-72, 1976.
“Folkloristic Research as a Pedagogical Tool in Introductory Courses” (co–authored with Michael Owen Jones), New York Folklore, 1:123-148, 1975.
“Hypotheses Fingo,” Journal of American Folklore, 88:411-417, 1975.
“The Semiotic of Charles S. Peirce and the First Dictionary of Semiotics” (co–authored with C.J.W. Kloesel), book review of Worterbuch der Semiotik, Semiotica, 13:395-414, 1975.
“Rejection Seen in Terms of Doubt and Belief,” Proceedings of the New Mexico-West Texas Philosophical Society, April 1973, 4-6, 1974.
“A Preliminary Survey of the Grammar of 'Folklore': An Introduction to Hominology,” Folklore Forum, Bibliographic and Special Series, no. 12, Indiana University, pp. 88-96, 1974.
“The Role of Hypotheses in Folkloristics,” Journal of American Folklore, 86:114-130, 1973.
“In Defense of Nagel,” Journal of American Folklore, 86:57-59, 1973.
"An Essay on the Nature of World Views." Dissertation. University of California - Santa Barbara. June 1972.
“Hydrophobia, Superstitious Pigeons, and Conventional Wisdom,” Western Folklore, 30:1-17, 1971.
“Concerning Cultural Determinism,” Journal of American Folklore, 84:444-446, 1971.
“The Use of Madstones in Oklahoma,” The Chronicles of Oklahoma, 46:433-449, 1968.
Conference Presentations and Interviews
Click on the title links to access a full .PDF of each article/chapter.
"From Mechanism to Interpretant in Life Sciences as Exhibited in The Thanatos Syndrome," South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 2022.
"The Emergence of Walker Percy's Radical Anthropology." South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 2021.
"The Helen Keller Phenomenon as an Experiment in Radical Anthropology: New Insights," South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 2020.
"Concealing and Revealing the Index in Walker Percy's Symbol and Existence: Percy's Interest in Neuroscience
and His Search for The Coupler Continued. " South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 2019.
Podcast: Christian Humanist Profiles 197: Symbol & Existence. September 7, 2020. https://christianhumanisprofiles.castos.com/podcasts/40498/episodes/christian-humanist-profiles-197-symbol-and-existence
"Percy's Interest in Neuroscience and His Search for The Coupler," South Atlantic Modern Language Association Annual Convention, Atlanta, GA, November 2017.