As far as ends go, if it's good enough for Goethe it's good enough for me. Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan.
Cheers, Jon http://inquiryintoinquiry.com On Mar 26, 2014, at 5:32 PM, Jeffrey Brian Downard <[email protected]> wrote: > Jon, List, > > Your reference to the Latin and Greek roots of the words 'purpose' and > 'object' make me think about the purpose of a theory of semiotics. For the > sake of reading Peirce, I've mainly assumed that the purpose is articulated > in the science of esthetics and then refined in the science of ethics. It is > probably worth noting that the scientific articulation of the highest > aesthetic and ethical ideal is something that we need for the purposes of > pure theoretical inquiry. That is, we need more clarity than common > experience already supplies. These philosophical accounts of the ideals of > pure inquiry are, for the sake of our everyday experience, accounts of ideals > that are themselves really parts of much larger ends that live and grow in > human communities and in the larger community of nature of which we are but a > part. > > In the third lecture in RLT, Peirce says this about the end of life: > "Generalization, the spilling out of continuous systems, in thought, in > sentiment, in deed, is the true end of life." (p. 163) > > The phrase always reminds me of the following passage from the early part of > Goethe's Faust. Having earned doctorates in the trivium of philosophy, > medicine and jurisprudence, Faust has grown tired of the futility of trying > to discover the great secrets about Nature herself. As he enters his study, > he is trying to determine an end for the next phase in his life. At this > point, as he calls on the old arts of magic, he says: > > 'Tis written: "In the beginning was the Word!" > Here now I'm balked! Who'll put me in accord? > It is impossible, the Word so high to prize, > I must translate it otherwise > If I am rightly by the Spirit taught. > 'Tis written: In the beginning was the Thought! > Consider well that line, the first you see, > That your pen may not write too hastily! > Is it then Thought that works, creative, hour by hour? > Thus should it stand: In the beginning was the Power! > Yet even while I write this word, I falter, > For something warns me, this too I shall alter. > The Spirit's helping me! I see now what I need > And write assured: In the beginning was the Deed! > > What kind of end, I wonder, might prove to be inexhaustible? Only an end of > this kind could, I suspect, serve as the purpose of pure inquiry. Hence the > importance of getting greater clarity about the inexhaustible nature of the > true continuities in this world. > > --Jeff
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