Although the various thinkers associated with pragmatism-from Charles Sanders Peirce to Jane Addams and beyond-were towering figures in American intellectual life, few realize the full extent of their engagement with the life sciences. In his analysis, Pearce focuses on a series of debates in biology from 1860 to 1910-from the instincts of honeybees to the inheritance of acquired characteristics-in which the pragmatists were active participants. If we want to understand the pragmatists and their influence, Pearce argues, we need to understand the relationship between pragmatism and biology.