Gary R., Gary F., lists,
I'm not sure that Peirce stuck with his idea of a Singular Symbol. CP
2.293-4 is from the "Syllabus" (circa 1902, according to the CP
editors). In a "Syllabus" passage - the one on subindices a.k.a.
hyposemes, dated 1903, he said that indices are individuals - he had not
embraced the idea of the indexical legisign yet.
[Quote]
_/Subindices/_ or _/hyposemes/_ are signs which are rendered such
principally by an actual connection with their objects. Thus a
proper name, [a] personal demonstrative, or relative pronoun or the
letter attached to a diagram, denotes what it does owing to a real
connection with its object but none of these is an Index, since it
is not an individual.
[1903 | Syllabus: Syllabus of a course of Lectures at the Lowell
Institute beginning 1903, Nov. 23. On Some Topics of Logic | EP 2:274]
I dimly remember another passage touching on this issue in "Syllabus"
but it's been years and years.
Best, Ben
On 10/1/2014 1:04 PM, Gary Richmond wrote:
Gary F, lists,
Gary wrote that in rereading the Speculative Grammar part of the
Syllabus that this struck him:
GF: that the interpretant of a dicisign or proposition represents
the sign itself as well as its object, and represents it as an
/index/ — which, strictly speaking, lacks the /generality/ which
makes the argument a symbol and thus more genuine.
I think that your rewording /is/ helpful (but then see the CP 2.293-4
quoted below which tends to complicate the matter for me); and,
further, that your notion that the reason that Peirce did so much
self-rewording was "to get through to the real, general, genuine
Thought that was . . . a piece of the Truth" and not a more (mere)
personal expression of it, makes good sense. I'm not sure that his
re-wordings /always/ made his thinking more transparent, but often
enough they did.
You also asked why I thought that Peirce's comment that "A proof or
genuine argument is a mental process which is open to logical criticism"
GR: . . . is in any way incompatible with the notion that the
dicisign might be described as 'degenerate' relative to the argument.
First, would you say that a 'proof' is but a species of genuine
argument? While it makes a kind of sense to me to say that the
dicisign is degenerate relative to the argument, I wonder if this
isn't straining Peirce's terminology a bit. Perhaps I was thinking
that Peirce speaks in places of degenerate symbols /per se/. For example:
. . . while the complete object of a symbol, that is to say, its
meaning, is of the nature of a law, it must denote an individual,
and must signify a character. A genuine symbol is a symbol that
has a general meaning. There are two kinds of degenerate symbols,
the Singular Symbol whose Object is an existent individual, and
which signifies only such characters as that individual may
realize; and the Abstract Symbol, whose only Object is a
character. CP 2.293
I think the meaning here is fairly clear, that there is one kind of
genuine symbol (one having a "general meaning"--but that would seem to
apply to symbols other than the 'proof' would it not?) and two kinds
of degenerate symbols, the Singular (its object being an individual)
and the Abstract (its object being a character). But in speaking of"
the immediate interpretant of an index," Peirce goes on to say:
Although the immediate Interpretant of an Index must be an Index,
yet since its Object may be the Object of an Individual [Singular]
Symbol, the Index may have such a Symbol for its indirect
Interpretant. Even a genuine Symbol may be an imperfect
Interpretant of it. So an icon may have a degenerate Index, or an
Abstract Symbol, for an indirect Interpretant, and a genuine Index
or Symbol for an imperfect Interpretant. CP 2.294
I'm having considerable difficulty parsing this second paragraph,
especially as to how he's using the terms 'imperfect' and 'indirect'
(as opposed to 'intended'?) But it seems to me that it might be
important--especially in getting at the concept of "genuine"--to try
to grasp Peirce's meaning here.
Best,
Gary R
*Gary Richmond
Philosophy and Critical Thinking
Communication Studies
LaGuardia College of the City University of New York
C 745
718 482-5690*
On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 11:31 AM, Gary Fuhrman wrote:
-----------------------------
PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L
to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to [email protected] . To
UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] with the
line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at
http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm .
