Cognition,Social Impulse,and the Principle of Adaptation: Insights into the Peirce-Veblen Connection

This article seeks to offer insights into the connections between Charles S. Peirce and Thorstein B. Veblen regarding their understanding of the logic of scientific thought and cognition. In this sense, this work explores how both Veblen and Peirce dismissed the Cartesian notion of unmediated cognition and how they sought to depict cognition as a process. Furthermore, this article presents Peirce’s concept of “social impulse” and Veblen’s “principle of adaptation” as complementary perspectives on science and cognition that have strong evolutionary content.