Questionable Research Practices in Late 19th Century America

Peirce’s career in American science and academic provides a window into the state of scientific research in the second half of the 19th century. This chapter considers Peirce’s troubled relationships with prominent individuals in American science and higher education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1861, Peirce joined the Coast Survey, which helped him avoid being drafted into military service during the Civil War. Peirce himself gave an oration on the state of science in America while in Paris in 1880. In 1879, Peirce joined the faculty of Johns Hopkins University, which had been founded in 1876. Peirce was appointed as a part-time lecturer in logic. Peirce encountered new problems with his employer in the late 1880s.