Unrealized.
Winter–Spring 1892
Plan for a scientific dictionary, to be called Summa Scientiæ; or,Summary of Human Knowledge. To be contained in one volume of 1500 pages of 1000 words per page. The articles, though elementary, to be masterly summaries valuable even to specialists. C. S. Peirce to be editor and to write about a third of the whole. The other writers to be young men, specialists who have not yet achieved great reputations, but found out and selected by the editor as having exceptional mental power and special competence. These men to conform to certain rules as to matter, arrangement, and style;and required to rewrite until they became trained in the kind of composition required.
Economy of space to be effected by every device that ingenuity and many years’ reflection upon this problem can suggest. Facts to be tabulated as far as possible. The style of writing to be extremely compact, yet scrupulously elegant. The ideas dominant in each branch of science to be emphatically indicated, and its leading principles distinctly stated.Every page, even the tables, to be interesting in matter, stimulating and agreeable in manner. The leading works to be always named.
The arrangement to be alphabetical. The length of the articles such as best subserves economy of space. This generally forbids very short articles; yet articles of more than one page should be rare.
The copy to be completed in two years. As every word would have to be weighed and every statement verified, it would cost $10 to $15 a thousand words. The editor to receive, besides, $3000 a year. The contents to be somewhat as follows:
A. Mathematics. 1. History of mathematics 25 pages 2. Pure mathematics. A complete synopsis, 100 " mostly without proofs. 3. Tables 25 " 4. Rigid dynamics 25 " 5. Hydrodynamics 15 " 6. Thermodynamics 10 " 7. Kinetical theory of bodies 5 " 8. Thermotics, etc. 5 " 9. Optics 5 " 10. Electricity and magnetism 10 " 11. Mathematical psychics 5 " 12. Mathematical economics 5 " 13. Probabilities 10 " 14. Miscellaneous 5 " Total mathematics 250 pages. B. Philosophy. 1. History of logic 5 pages 2. Principles of logic 25 " 3. Traditional rules of logic 15 " 4. Terminology of logic 5 " 5. Outlines of the principal ontological and 50 " cosmological and transcendental systems Total philosophy 100 pages. ... F. Sociology. 1. Tables of languages 50 pages 2. Miscellaneous linguistics 20 " 3. Rhetoric 10 " 4. History of literature 5 " 5. Weights, measures, chronology 5 " 6. Anthropological tables 40 " 7. Games and sports 10 " 8. War 10 " 9. History of religion in tables 40 " 10. Politics 25 " 11. Ethics 5 " 12. Jurisprudence and criminology 10 " 13. History of law 5 " 14. Our law and customs 50 " 15. Domestic economy 25 pages 16. Education 25 " 17. Miscellaneous 15 " G. Individual facts. 1. Astronomy and its history 20 pages 2. Geology 10 " 3. Geography 80 " 4. Statistics 10 " 5. General history 80 " 6. Biography 90 " 7. Miscellaneous 10 " Total individual facts 300 pages. Grand total 1500 pages.This distribution of the contents is subject to changes of detail; but its general character will remain.
The aim is to make the volume the most useful one ever published to persons of modern liberal education.
C. S. Peirce
12 January 2011 at 16:45
Wasn’t this is a Howard Hawks movie?!