Sung, "An end as well as a cause" is what we usually call a "final cause", in the neo-Aristotelian analysis, and Stan Salthe has been for years been arguing that the Second Law of thermodynamics is the final cause of just about everything everything. Not everyone agrees with that, but the idea of "final cause", "purpose", "telos" or whatever we call it is widely deployed in ecology and biosemiotics these days. Tori's "pure telicism," as Ben called it, is another story; her proposal to call telos "objective" is unusual, and the idea of replacing the concept of "object of a sign" with it is even more unusual.
gary f. -----Original Message----- From: Sungchul Ji [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 31-Mar-14 2:10 PM To: Gary Fuhrman Cc: Peirce List Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Objects, Objectives, Objectivity Ben, Gary F, Lists, According to I. Prigogine (1917-2003), thermodynamic decay (i.e., irreversibile processes) is essnetial for constructing dissipative structures (e.g., the flame of a candle, action potentials, organisms, EEG, societies, etc.). He gave two lectures at Rutgers in the 1980's under the title "The Consructive Role of Irreversible Processes. This may be interpreted (poetically ?) to mean that thermodynamic decay is an end as well as a cause (of dissipative structures). With all the best. Sung
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