  A few further comments are perhaps in order in connection with Peirce’s idea of the economy (or: the economics) of research. Concern for the economy of research is a crucial and ineliminable part of Peirce’s idea of the scientific method. He understood that science is essentially a human and social enterprise and that it always operates in some given historical, social, and economic context.  In such a context some problems are crucial and paramount and must be attended-to immediately, while other problems are trivial or frivolous or at least can be put off until later. He understood that in the real context of science some experiments may be vitally important while others may be insignificant. Peirce also understood that the economic resources of the scientist (time, money, ability to exert effort, etc.) are always scarce, even though all the while the “great ocean of truth,” which lies undiscovered before us, is infinite. All resources for carrying out research, such as personnel, person-hours, and apparatus, are quite costly; accordingly, it is wasteful, indeed irrational, to squander them. Peirce proposed, therefore, that careful consideration be paid to the problem of how to obtain the biggest epistemological “bang for the buck.” In effect, the economics of research is a cost/benefit analysis in connection with states of knowledge. Although this idea has been insufficiently explored by Peirce scholars, Peirce himself regarded it as central to the scientific method and to the idea of rational behavior.  It is connected with what he called “speculative rhetoric” or “methodeutic” (which will be discussed below).