JAS, list

I think it's up to Robert Marty to inform me if I am misreading his paper. Not 
you. 

1] Nor am I saying that his ’two determinations’ are ’the sign determining both 
of the other two correlates'. I am referring to his clear outline of an a 
priori determination and an a posteriori determination. You seem to ignore this 
analysis. 

These are as he outlines: 
- a priori :  This is a cognitive movement, involving Mind or Quasi Mind from 
the First correlate [ the Sign/Representamen] becoming activated..to interact 
with the Object [ which is providing the data stimulus which the Mind picks 
up]..and moving on to arrive at the Meaning, the Interpretant.  This is the 
cognitive processing from S/R->O->I. 

- a posteriori- this is the informational movement of data from the Object via 
the mediating Sign/Representamen, to the Interpretant. This is strictly about 
the movement and transformation of data from O->R/S-I. 

You are ignoring this analysis of TWO determinations - a priori and a 
posteriori.

2] Your opinion that there is a genuine object and a degenerate object has no 
basis, as far as I know, in any of Peirce’s work. The terms ‘genuine’ and 
‘degenerate’ are used by Peirce to refer to the categorical modes, where, for 
example, there is a pure quantitative Secondness  [2-2]  Secondness operating 
totally within reactive brute force; this is defined as ‘genuine’. And a 
qualitative Secondness [2-1] which is Secondness operating within the ambiguity 
and lack of measurable clarity found in Firstness. The same can be found within 
Thirdness [ 3-3, which is genuine abstract generality] and 3-2 [ which is a 
degenerate generality of indexical connection] and 3-1 which is a double 
degenerate generality of iconic generality. .

I totally disagree with your moving this account of the categories, in their 
genuine and degenerate modes, into defining the three Interpretants. After all- 
your doing so denies the fact that the full set of Interpretants can be in any 
one of the categorical modes..And certainly, the S/R can function in any of 
these three modes of Thirdness! 

Edwina

. 

> On Jun 24, 2025, at 6:16 PM, Jon Alan Schmidt <[email protected]> 
> wrote:
> 
> Edwina, List:
> 
> You are evidently misreading Robert's paper. His "two determinations" are not 
> the sign determining both of the other two correlates, they are the object 
> determining the sign and the sign determining the interpretant--just as I 
> said. You and Robert correctly quote Peirce saying that "the First Correlate 
> [sign] may be regarded as determining the Third Correlate [interpretant] in 
> some respect" (CP 2.241, EP 2:290, 1903). However, Peirce does not say that 
> the First Correlate [sign] determines the Second Correlate [object] in any 
> respect. On the contrary, Robert also correctly quotes him (with the key 
> phrases bolded) saying that the sign "is determined by the object, but in no 
> other respect than goes to enable it to act upon the interpreting quasi mind" 
> (EP 2:391, 1906). In other words, the object determines the sign to determine 
> the interpretant.
> 
> As for the dynamical/immediate objects being genuine/degenerate, and the 
> final/dynamical/immediate interpretants being genuine/degenerate/doubly 
> degenerate, what other basis would you suggest for establishing that there 
> are exactly two objects and three interpretants? Is it just a coincidence 
> that they precisely match up with Robert's podium diagram? I think that the 
> dynamical object and the final interpretant being what Peirce simply calls 
> "the object" and "the interpretant" in his 1903 taxonomy--we know this 
> because in his later ones, icon/index/symbol is the trichotomy according the 
> the sign's relation with its dynamical object, and rheme/dicisign/argument is 
> the trichotomy according to the sign's relation with its final 
> interpretant--is very strong evidence for them being the genuine object and 
> the genuine interpretant.
> 
> For the degenerate interpretants, I have pointed out before that according to 
> Peirce, "Taking any class in whose essential idea the predominant element is 
> 3ns, or Representation, the self-development of that essential idea ... 
> results in a trichotomy giving rise to three subclasses, or genera, involving 
> respectively a relatively genuine thirdness, a relatively reactional 3ns or 
> 3ns of the lesser degree of degeneracy, and a relatively qualitative 3ns or 
> 3ns of the last degeneracy" (EP 2:162, 1903). As I see it, the dynamical 
> interpretant is a relatively reactional interpretant because it is any actual 
> effect of the sign, and thus external to the sign; while the immediate 
> interpretant is a relatively qualitative interpretant because it is the range 
> of possible effects of the sign, and thus internal to the sign.
> 
> On the other hand, reaction corresponds to genuine 2ns, which is another 
> reason for taking the dynamical object to be the genuine object--it is "the 
> Reality which by some means contrives to determine the Sign to its 
> Representation" (CP 4.536, 1906), and thus external to the sign. According to 
> Peirce, "Category the Second has a Degenerate Form, in which there is 2ns 
> indeed, but a weak or Secondary 2ns that ... belongs to it only in a certain 
> respect" (EP 2:160, 1903). Likewise, the immediate object "is the Object as 
> the Sign itself represents it, and whose Being is thus dependent upon the 
> Representation of it in the Sign" (ibid.), i.e., no sign represents its 
> dynamical object in every respect, only "in a certain respect" that is 
> internal to the sign as its immediate object.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Jon
> 
> On Tue, Jun 24, 2025 at 12:17 PM Edwina Taborsky <[email protected] 
> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>> JAS, list
>> 
>> I disagree. I note that in Robert Marty’s paper, p 22, Section 2.3, in which 
>> he discusses Two determinations in the mature sign’ , he provides the 
>> quotation “In every genuine Triadic Relation, the First Correlate may be 
>> regarded as determining the Third Correlate in some respect…2.241.
>> 
>> And I absolutely disagree with your view that the Repesentamen/Sign is 
>> ’simple’ because there is only one correlate. According to you - for some 
>> reason, you have defined the fact that there are two objects as one being 
>> ‘genuine and the other being ‘degenerate’. What evidence do you have for 
>> this? And you fdeine the three Interpretants as one being ‘genuine, the 
>> other two as various stages of ‘degenerate’. Again - what’s your evidence? . 
>> 
>> You obviously disagree with Robert Marty’s outline and analysis - of the two 
>> determinations… and I agree with his analysis. 
>> 
>> Edwina
>>> On Jun 24, 2025, at 12:59 PM, Jon Alan Schmidt <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Edwina, List:
>>> 
>>> ET: I also note that, in my view, Peirce’s analysis of the simple, middling 
>>> complexity and most complex nature of the three correlates [2.235-6-7] 
>>> refers to their position in the a priori correlate order of determination. 
>>> where the Representamen, the first correlate, is the simplest, because it 
>>> determines all three.
>>> 
>>> On the contrary, in Peirce's speculative grammar, the designation of the 
>>> sign/object/interpretant as the first/second/third correlates is not an 
>>> order of determination, it is an order of complexity. The sign is the first 
>>> (simplest) correlate because it has no degenerate correlate, the 
>>> (dynamical) object is the second (middling) correlate because it has only 
>>> one degenerate correlate (immediate), and the interpretant is the third 
>>> (most complex) correlate because it has two degenerate correlates 
>>> (dynamical and immediate). As I have said before, this is the result of 
>>> phaneroscopic analysis of the genuine triadic relation of representing or 
>>> (more generally) mediating in accordance with Peirce's universal 
>>> categories, as very helpfully illustrated by Robert's podium diagram. It 
>>> indeed has nothing to do with his taxonomies of sign classes that employ 
>>> trichotomies of "categorical modes" (1ns/2ns/3ns) or universes 
>>> (possible/existent/necessitant) for the correlates and their relations, 
>>> other than establishing that there are exactly these six correlates.
>>> 
>>> The sign as the first correlate does not determine the object as the second 
>>> correlate, although it does determine the interpretant as the third 
>>> correlate. Instead, the object as the second correlate determines the sign 
>>> as the first correlate. In other words, semiosis always proceeds in 
>>> accordance with Gary Richmond's vector of determination (2ns→1ns→3ns). As 
>>> Peirce himself puts it ...
>>> 
>>> CSP: I will say that a sign is anything, of whatsoever mode of being, which 
>>> mediates between an object and an interpretant; since it is both determined 
>>> by the object relatively to the interpretant, and determines the 
>>> interpretant in reference to the object, in such wise as to cause the 
>>> interpretant to be determined by the object through the mediation of this 
>>> "sign." The object and the interpretant are thus merely the two correlates 
>>> of the sign; the one being antecedent, the other consequent of the sign. 
>>> (EP 2:410, 1907)
>>> 
>>> Incorporating the degenerate correlates ...
>>> 
>>> CSP: It is evident that a Possible can determine nothing but a Possible; it 
>>> is equally so that a Necessitant can be determined by nothing but a 
>>> Necessitant. Hence it follows from the Definition of a Sign that since the 
>>> Dynamoid Object determines the Immediate Object, which determines the Sign 
>>> itself, which determines the Destinate Interpretant, which determines the 
>>> Effective Interpretant, which determines the Explicit Interpretant, the six 
>>> trichotomies, instead of determining 729 classes of signs, as they would if 
>>> they were independent, only yield 28 classes. (EP 2:481, 1908)
>>> 
>>> Here, "determines" means "logically constrains" in accordance with the 
>>> first sentence, which is why these six trichotomies yield 28 sign classes 
>>> instead of 729; and again, there is longstanding disagreement about whether 
>>> destinate=final and explicit=immediate (as I maintain), or 
>>> destinate=immediate and explicit=final.
>>> 
>>> Regards,
>>> 
>>> Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA
>>> Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian
>>> www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt 
>>> <http://www.linkedin.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt> / twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt 
>>> <http://twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt>
>>> On Tue, Jun 24, 2025 at 11:34 AM Edwina Taborsky <[email protected] 
>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>> Further to my comments on the a priori determination and the a posteriori 
>>>> determination - these seem to me to acknowledge the two different roles of 
>>>> MIND and EXPERIENCE.
>>>> 
>>>> The a priori determination process acknowledges that any entity  - and I’d 
>>>> include, as does Peirce, protoplasm’ - has a mind-determined or rational 
>>>> interaction with the world. Or further..’an intelligence capable of 
>>>> learning by experience’ 2.227. 1897. And as Peirce has always noted about 
>>>> habits - they grow. An organism capable of learning [ even without a 
>>>> separate brain] can thus adapt, can evolve in its cognitive interactions 
>>>> with its environment [ Objects] and its functional use of them 
>>>> {interpretants]. 
>>>> 
>>>> Therefore Mind or quasi-Mind- is the first correlate…and picks up data 
>>>> from the Object[s] with which it THEN is in an a posteriori communicative 
>>>> interaction. 
>>>> 
>>>> Again - this First Correlate - as the First - has NOTHING to do with 
>>>> either there being only one correlate as the Repesentamen-Sign, or its 
>>>> being in a categorical mode of Firstness. It is often in a categorical 
>>>> mode of Secondness or Thirdness. It is a reference to the role of Mind, as 
>>>> Robert has clearly shown, ..’the a priori world of mathematics and the 
>>>> contingent world of experience [ quote from Nathan Houser 1989, p21].  The 
>>>> world of mathematics is a property or action of Mind/quasi-Mind. 
>>>> 
>>>> Edwina
>>>>> On Jun 24, 2025, at 9:59 AM, Edwina Taborsky <[email protected] 
>>>>> <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
>>>>> 
>>>>> Robert, list
>>>>> 
>>>>> Thank you for your paper. I cannot comment on the use of AI - but am 
>>>>> focused, specifically, on your outline of 2.3. Two Determinations in the 
>>>>> mature sign. Now - this is, in my view, very important.  TWO 
>>>>> determinations. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 1] There is, as you outline, the  a priori set of triadic relations, 
>>>>> where the First Correlate is the Representamen, the Second is the Object 
>>>>> and the Third is the Interpretant. 2.241.; 2.242. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> So- the Order is: Sign-Representamen/Object/Interpretant.  This seems to 
>>>>> correlate with the categories, such that a correlate in Firstness can 
>>>>> only determine other correlates in the same mode… A correlate in 
>>>>> Thirdness can determine correlates in the same or ‘lesser’ modes.  2.235. 
>>>>> This analysis is abstract rather than referring to actual ‘ens’. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 2] Then, in 1905, Peirce added another role for the sign/representamen, 
>>>>> an a posteriori analysis...as a ‘medium of communication’, and the order 
>>>>> of determination is 
>>>>> Object->Sign/Repesentamren-> Interpretant.  
>>>>> 
>>>>> And, as you point out, it is important as Peirce did, to distinguish 
>>>>> between the a posteriori and a priori forms of knowledge. 
>>>>> They do not contradict each other; they instead, refer to different 
>>>>> aspects of the semiosic process - but- they work together. 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 3] I also note that , in my view, Peirce’s analysis of the ’simple, 
>>>>> middling complexity and most complex nature of the three correlates [ 
>>>>> 2.235-6-7] refers to their position in the a priori correlate order of 
>>>>> determination. where 
>>>>> - the Represetnamen, the first correlate,is the simplest, because it 
>>>>> determines all three. 
>>>>> - And the third correlate, the Interpretant, is the most complex “being a 
>>>>> law if any one of the three is a law, and not being a mere possibility 
>>>>> unless all three are of that nature ] 2.236]. Note: I point out that, the 
>>>>> reference to any one of the three or all three refers to the three 
>>>>> correlates, NOT three Interpretants]
>>>>> 
>>>>> So far, in my reading, an excellent analysis- and I’m particularly 
>>>>> appreciative of the outline of the two determinations..ie..a priori and a 
>>>>> posteriori
>>>>> 
>>>>> Edwina

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