ABSTRACT
The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce built his philosophy of pragmatism around it, and even businesspeople encounter situations in which doubt proves its worth. Peirce, whose name is pronounced "purse," was a multifaceted physical scientist, mathematician, and philosopher who founded the only American school of philosophy: pragmatism. Part of the rediscovery and revival of interest in Peirce is due to his role as one of the forerunners of the modern discipline of semiotics, the study of signs. The chapter describes that Barb Allen was using the pragmatic method of inquiry developed by Charles Peirce to determine the truth of the situation at Quaker. Barb Allen heard surprising things about the condition of women at the Quaker Oats Company. Thomas Duffy had discovered Peircean pragmatism in his search for a method of community inquiry that would get the polarization, name-calling, and vitriol that too characterize political discourse.
