I have no problem with this, Thomas, as showing the need for the distinction of the existent vs. the real, but then I wasn't really putting the need for it in question but only intending to indicate that I don't always understand how to apply it effectively.
Joe Ransdell ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Riese" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Peirce Discussion Forum" <peirce-l@lyris.ttu.edu> Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 1:52 AM Subject: [peirce-l] Existent vs Real Joe, I propose, to fix our ideas, that we try our hands at the following: (from Prolegomena to an Apology for Pragmaticism; 1906) [CP 4.546] Let us begin with the question of Universes. It is rather a question of an advisable point of view than of the truth of a doctrine. A logical universe is, no doubt, a collection of logical subjects, but not necessarily of meta-physical Subjects, or "substances"; for it may be composed of characters, of elementary facts, etc. See my definition in Baldwin's Dictionary. Let us first try whether we may not assume that there is but one kind of Subjects which are either existing things or else quite fictitious. Let it be asserted that there is some married woman who will commit suicide in case her husband fails in business. Surely that is a very different proposition from the assertion that some married woman will commit suicide if all married men fail in business. Yet if nothing is real but existing things, then, since in the former proposition nothing whatever is said as to what the lady will or will not do if her husband does not fail in business, and since of a given married couple this can only be false if the fact is contrary to the assertion, it follows it can only be false if the husband does fail in business and if the wife then fails to commit suicide. But the proposition only says that there is some married couple of which the wife is of that temper. Consequently, there are only two ways in which the proposition can be false, namely, first, by there not being any married couple, and secondly, by every married man failing in business while no married woman commits suicide. Consequently, all that is required to make the proposition true is that there should either be some married man who does not fail in business, or else some married woman who commits suicide. That is, the proposition amounts merely to asserting that there is a married woman who will commit suicide if every married man fails in business. The equivalence of these two propositions is the absurd result of admitting no reality but existence. If, however, we suppose that to say that a woman will suicide if her husband fails, means that every possible course of events would either be one in which the husband would not fail or one in which the wife would commit suicide, then, to make that false it will not be requisite for the husband actually to fail, but it will suffice that there are possible circumstances under which he would fail, while yet his wife would not commit suicide. Now you will observe that there is a great difference between the two following propositions: First, There is some one married woman who under all possible conditions would commit suicide or else her husband would not have failed. Second, Under all possible circumstances there is some married woman or other who would commit suicide, or else her husband would not nave failed. The former of these is what is really meant by saying that there is some married woman who would commit suicide if her husband were to fail, while the latter is what the denial of any possible circumstances except those that really take place logically leads to [our] interpreting (or virtually interpreting), the Proposition as asserting. [CP 4.547] In other places, I have given many other reasons for my firm belief that there are real possibilities. I also think, however, that, in addition to actuality and possibility, a third mode of reality must be recognized in that which, as the gipsy fortune-tellers express it, is "sure to come true," or, as we may say is destined,(n1) although I do not mean to assert that this is affirmation rather than the negation of this Mode of Reality. I do not see by what confusion of thought anybody can persuade himself that he does not believe that tomorrow is destined to come. The point is that it is today really true that tomorrow the sun will rise; or that, even if it does not, the clocks or something, will go on. For if it be not real it can only be fiction: a Proposition is either True or False. But we are too apt to confound destiny with the impossibility of the opposite. I see no impossibility in the sudden stoppage of everything. In order to show the difference, I remind you that "impossibility" is that which, for example, describes the mode of falsity of the idea that there should be a collection of objects so multitudinous that there would not be characters enough in the universe of characters to distinguish all those things from one another. Is there anything of that sort about the stoppage of all motion? There is, perhaps, a Law of nature against it; but that is all. However, I will postpone the consideration of that point. Let us, at least, provide for such a mode of being in our system of diagrammatization, since it may turn out to be needed and, as I think, surely will. Thomas. --- Message from peirce-l forum to subscriber [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.375 / Virus Database: 267.15.8/260 - Release Date: 2/14/2006 -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. 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