Tom, lists,
See my previous message (sorry about the bit before the last sentence that I forgot to delete before sending). My replies to this one are inserted: gary f. From: Tom Gollier [mailto:tgoll...@gmail.com] Sent: 4-Oct-14 7:50 PM Gary and list, A does signify B in the first part of the quote. That's what I took as the "operational" sense. But in the second part of the quote it says: "If a sign, A, only denotes real objects that are a part or the whole of the objects denoted by another sign, B, then A is said to be a subject (or substantial part) of B." [GF] It should be clear that the sign B here is a proposition. Far from confusing Peirce, I think this distinguishes him from the modern tendency toward infinite signifying (semiosis), on the one hand, and postulating a metaphysical universe of true facts, on the other. [GF] I think I see what you mean here, but I also think it’s more important for our purposes to emphasize Peirce’s definition of “fact” in “Kaina Stoicheia” (EP2:304): “What we call a “fact” is something having the structure of a proposition, but supposed to be an element of the very universe itself. The purpose of every sign is to express “fact,” and by being joined with other signs, to approach as nearly as possible to determining an interpretant which would be the perfect Truth, the absolute Truth, and as such (at least, we may use this language) would be the very Universe.” This sounds very much like “postulating a metaphysical universe of true facts,” but note what Peirce says just before the part you quoted: “it is highly convenient to express ourselves in terms of a metaphysical theory; and we no more bind ourselves to an acceptance of it than we do when we use substantives such as “humanity,” “variety,” etc. and speak of them as if they were substances, in the metaphysical sense.” Tom
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