Re: Howard Pattee
At: http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.science.philosophy.peirce/14669
Howard, List,
Peirce's classic statement about the relationship between interpreters and
interpretants is a topic I discussed somewhat playfully here:
http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/Inquiry_Driven_Systems_:_Part_1#1.3.4.18._C.27est_Moi
<quote>
I think we need to reflect upon the circumstance that every word implies some
proposition or, what is the same thing, every word, concept, symbol has an
equivalent term — or one which has become identified with it, — in short, has an
interpretant.
Consider, what a word or symbol is; it is a sort of representation. Now a
representation is something which stands for something. … A thing cannot stand
for something without standing to something for that something. Now, what is
this that a word stands to? Is it a person?
We usually say that the word homme stands to a Frenchman for man. It would be a
little more precise to say that it stands to the Frenchman's mind — to his
memory. It is still more accurate to say that it addresses a particular
remembrance or image in that memory. And what image, what remembrance? Plainly,
the one which is the mental equivalent of the word homme — in short, its
interpretant. Whatever a word addresses then or stands to, is its interpretant
or identified symbol. …
The interpretant of a term, then, and that which it stands to are identical.
Hence, since it is of the very essence of a symbol that it should stand to
something, every symbol — every word and every conception — must have an
interpretant — or what is the same thing, must have information or implication.
</quote>(Peirce, CE 1, 466–467).
Regards,
Jon
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