A C Entury of L Ife

ENTURY OF L IFE H APPY B IRTHDAY P AUL W EISS Paul Weiss, one of the great American philosophers of the twentieth century, celebrated his 100th birthday on 19 May. Peirceans worldwide are indebted to Paul for the crucial role he played in the 1930s in editing Peirce’s writings for the Harvard edition. The Collected Papers inaugurated Peirce scholarship, standing as the historical foundation for Peirce studies. Weiss has been remarkably effective as a teacher and writer. He never caved in to the twentieth-century prejudice against speculative and systematic philosophy and, with the demise of that prejudice, he enters the twenty-first century (and his own second century) with renewed purpose. One of his greatest achievements, Being and Other Realities, appeared in 1995 (Open Court); and Emphatics, the first of a projected four-book series, was published in 2000 by Vanderbilt University Press. Earlier this year, Weiss finished the second book of that series, Surrogates, and he is currently at work on the third, Adjuncts. On 19 May Paul woke up to a substantial article in the Washington Post about his life and career. The lengthy article by Philip Kennicott, “The Emphatic Philosopher,” was the front-page lead in the Style section. Nathan Houser and Albert Lewis represented the Peirce Edition Project at Weiss’s birthday celebration in Washington, D.C.; other Peirceans on hand included Joseph Brent and Kenneth Ketner. We are proud to be linked with this American sage by our common interest in Peirce’s writings and through his service as an advisor to the Peirce Edition Project. In case any of our readers wish to memorialize the completion of Paul’s first century, we have learned that his two favorite charities are Legal Services for the Elderly, Suite 1700, 130 W 42, NYC 10036 (Paul’s son, Jonathan, is the director); and Henry Street Settlement, 265 Henry Street, NYC 10002 (HSS sponsored a visit to the country for Paul when he was a young city-bound boy). S HORT A PPOINTED C HAIRMAN OF B OARD AS R OBERTS S TEPS D OWN After seven years as PEP’s Chairman of the Board of Advisors, Don D. Roberts has stepped down to pursue some personal initiatives at his new home on Vancouver Island, where he recently retired with his wife, Beverley Kent. Roberts has served the Edition in numerous ways since its inception, and his leadership as board chairman saw PEP through a crucial period of rebuilding. The editors salute Roberts for his service and are grateful that he has agreed to continue serving as a member of the board’s Executive Committee. In March, Dean Herman Saatkamp Jr. appointed Thomas L. Short as the new Chairman of the Board. Many readers of this newsletter will know of Short through his papers on Peirce’s semiotics and pragmatism—especially on the teleological currents of Peirce’s pragmatic thought. Perhaps this bodes well for those who have urged the editors to keep an eye on desirable outcomes. Short takes over just as PEP is about to launch a five-year endowment campaign to secure the completion of the Critical Edition and to support the establishment of a permanent Peirce research center based on PEP’s accumulated resources. The Peirce Society will hold a joint reception with the Santayana Society on 28 December at the meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association in Atlanta. Readers who attend the reception will have an opportunity to meet Short and talk with him about PEP. Anyone wishing to communicate with him in the interim may address correspondence to the Peirce Project. P EIRCE P ROJECT N EWSLETTER