The club existed only for a few months, but over the remainder of the century and into the next, Holmes, James, Peirce and their intellectual heir John Dewey wrangled with the philosophical questions that defined modern American life. Metaphysical Club,'' which might have spared Henry James the headache. When William James publicly ''invented'' pragmatism 26 years later, he credited Peirce with the original formulation. The challenge, if there is no higher ''truth'' or ''good'' out there waiting to be discovered, is to determine how people can distinguish right from wrong, decide how to act or choose what to believe. Two years later, he retired.
Truth happens to an idea.
Peirce spent most of his career trying to figure out what it means to say we ''know'' anything in a world governed by chance, and to square modern science and philosophy with his belief in God. And his tempestuous life made James's look like the law of gravity. Peirce got into trouble with drugs, money, women and work. Expected to give a paper before the Metaphysical Club one night, he was said to have shown up late, then held forth on how minutes got into the habit of coming one after another. If the remedy works, the bet becomes right.