Musement as Epoché: Peirce and Husserl on Religious Experience

Both Peirce’s portrayal of musement and Husserl’s concept of the epoché involve a prescinding from the reality-status of observed phenomena in order to perceive and describe them just as they appear to the observer, just as they are given. This essay links Peirce’s thinking about musement to his phenomenological investigations. Since that thinking occurs within the context of one of his few published articles about religion, the relevance of such investigations for understanding religious experience is readily established. The comparison with Husserl reinforces this claim of relevance. A question is raised here about the conditions under which one might be best enabled to recognize that which appears or is given in experience as a sign, consequently and furthermore, as a gift of meaning.