List,
I am trying to sharpen my understanding of the concept of index with respect to a natural or an artificial language. I was struck by the number of entries, at least in the Commens Dictionary, that fail to isolate what is essential for distinguishing an index from a subindice with respect to linguistic entities. Peirce uses a lot of concepts, including connection, relation, real relation, reaction, actual connection, individual and existence to do a lot of work. In the case of proper names, if the name is governed by a law or legisign, it can count as an index. BUT this still does not give us all of the the necessary conditions for a proper name to count as an index. (In fact, the law could state that it has indefinite reference, and thus concede that proper names are subindices.) The further necessary condition appears to be "definite." I did not find this in the Commens. The law has to prescribe the application of the name to *one and only one individual.*
I might add that the existence and individuality of the object named are critically essential also. But those two conditions are not sufficient. Consequently, the proper name "Charles Peirce" is an index only if:
1. Charles Peirce existed
2. Charles Peirce is an individual
3. "Charles Peirce" names a definite object
Maybe I missed something in the Commens or should look elsewhere or maybe "individual" and "existence" do all the work "definite" is supposed to. But it seems that they do not. Even if Charles Peirce can be differentiated from every other existent individual and made definite, I cannot find any entry in the Commens Dictionary that captures how the law of the proper name could suggest this application. Thus, I cannot find in the text how a proper name can clearly count as an index rather than a subindice. It is not enough to suggest that a law is involved without being more specific about that law. Does anyone know of another passage? Any related comments are welcome too.
Jim W
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