I think that the verso is indeed a 'different mode' but I'd rather say a different mode of reality than a different mode of discourse. Minor point.
If, as Pierce points out, the verso refers to possibilities while the recto refers to existential actual facts, then, although the Moebius strip acknowledges two presentational sides, it runs into a serious problem of an inability to define the separation of these two different modes: verso and recto. Then, another problem is how these two modes interact with each other; they cannot merge; they must retain their unique identities yet both play a vital role. This interface as I call it, of the interaction between the two is an important area. Information is transformed from 'possible' to actual; some actual is moved to generalization, some is marginalized or lost ..and so on. I consider that the interface is the mode of Secondness in a mode of Firstness - Edwina ----- Original Message ----- From: Gary Fuhrman To: [email protected] Cc: 'Peirce List' Sent: Sunday, January 25, 2015 10:11 AM Subject: [biosemiotics:7985] RE: [PEIRCE-L] RE: NP 8.3 and the Improvement on the Gamma Graphs — On second thought, I shouldn’t have said that the verso represents a different universe from the recto. Rather it represents a different mode of the universe of discourse. A graph on it is not an assertion, but as Peirce says (4.575) it “must usually have a definite connection with a place on the recto.” That’s why he no longer says that a graph crossing a cut is meaningless; now it represents a reference (see NP p. 122). By the way, Mary, I didn’t think your reference to the Moebius strip was totally off the wall, just that I couldn’t make it stick to the wall. J gary f. From: Gary Fuhrman [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 25-Jan-15 9:52 AM Mary, lists, I don’t think it’s a mistake to read the verso as being on the underside of the recto. That’s exactly where it is, until the graphist makes his cut in the paper and turns over the part inside the cut; and even then it represents a different universe from the recto, the sheet of assertion. Maybe it would help if I copy here the beginning of “An Improvement on the Gamma Graphs” (CP 4) down to the point where Frederik’s quotation from it begins (NP p. 221): 573. In working with Existential Graphs, we use, or at any rate imagine that we use, a sheet of paper of different tints on its two sides. Let us say that the side we call the recto is cream white while the verso is usually of somewhat bluish grey, but may be of yellow or of a rose tint or of green. The recto is appropriated to the representation of existential, or actual, facts, or what we choose to make believe are such. The verso is appropriated to the representation of possibilities of different kinds according to its tint, but usually to that of subjective possibilities, or subjectively possible truths. The special kind of possibility here called subjective is that which consists in ignorance. If we do not know that there are not inhabitants of Mars, it is subjectively possible that there are such beings. … 574. The verso is usually appropriated to imparting information about subjective possibilities or what may be true for aught we know. To scribe a graph is to impart an item of information; and this item of information does one of two things. It either adds to what we know to exist or it cuts off something from our list of subjective possibilities. Hence, it must be that a graph scribed on the verso is thereby denied. 575. Now the denial of a subjective possibility usually, if not always, involves the assertion of a truth of existence; and consequently what is put upon the verso must usually have a definite connection with a place on the recto. 576. In my former exposition of Existential Graphs, I said that there must be a department of the System which I called the Gamma part into which I was as yet able to gain mere glimpses, sufficient only to show me its reality, and to rouse my intense curiosity, without giving me any real insight into it. The conception of the System which I have just set forth is a very recent discovery. I have not had time as yet to trace out all its consequences. But it is already plain that, in at least three places, it lifts the veil from the Gamma part of the system. 577. The new discovery which sheds such a light is simply that, as the main part of the sheet represents existence or actuality, so the area within a cut, that is, the verso of the sheet, represents a kind of possibility. 578. From thence I immediately infer several things that I did not understand before, as follows: First, the cut may be imagined to extend down to one or another depth into the paper, so that the overturning of the piece cut out may expose one stratum or another, these being distinguished by their tints; the different tints representing different kinds of possibility. This improvement gives substantially, as far as I can see, nearly the whole of that Gamma part which I have been endeavoring to discern. gary f. -----Original Message----- From: Libertin, Mary [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 25-Jan-15 8:43 AM Dear Ben, Jeff, Gary F., Your comments make much sense. Upon rereading Peirce I realized one of my mistakes. I had been reading the verso as being on the underside of the recto. It is rather on the same side. I did notice Peirce briefly referring to Klein in his discussion of existential graphs. Klein bottles work in the fourth dimension and operate can be seen as consisting of two mobius strips in some fashion. I do not wish to pursue this except to mention that my reference to the mobius strip in the context of boundaries and continuity was not totally off the wall, but it was a miss. I will bow out of the conversation and listen to the experts. Thanks for your explanations and tactfulness with regards to my mistake. Best, Mary Libertin
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