I think that one has to first define 'God'. If the term means 'pure mind' then, this fits in with Peirce's analysis - for he considers that Mind is 'immanent in nature'. Of course, one then has to define 'Mind' - and I disagree that it is only Thirdness, but consider that it, as a powerful process, contains the actions of Firstness and Secondness as well - This means that the results of the process of abduction, an act of immediate Firstness. can be moved into the present instantation of inductional experience..and then, backed up by analysis over time, or, deduction.
Panpsychism seems to have a different meaning, ie, "the doctrine or belief that everything material, however small, has an element of individual consciousness.". Since Peirce rejected consciousness as a necessary attribute of Mind and wasn't keen on psychology - then, this definition doesn't seem to work. However, if you remove 'individual consciousness' from the definition and define it instead as a 'process of Mind or Reason'...then..this would, I think, fit into the Peircean analysis. And I don't consider the Universes as equivalent to the Categories and thus, do not, in my view, 'supplant' the Categories. There is no way, I feel, that the Categories can be removed from being an integral component of Peircean semiosis. The Categories, in my reading of Peirce, are certainly not external labels which we use to categorize experience. I read them as integral to reality and existence. Edwina ----- Original Message ----- From: Jon Alan Schmidt To: Helmut Raulien Cc: [email protected] Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2016 3:22 PM Subject: Re: RE: [PEIRCE-L] Peirce's Cosmology Helmut, List: My understanding of "pantheism" is that it entails that God is "immanent in nature," so Peirce's explicit denial of this in three different drafts of "A Neglected Argument" is pretty decisive evidence against deeming him a pantheist. It seems to me that Edwina's adjustment--stating that Mind (rather than God) is immanent in nature--is more properly classified as panpsychism, and I do not believe that it is terribly controversial to apply that particular label to Peirce. At least some of the other formulations that you offered sound to me more like panentheism than pantheism, but my impression is that there are a lot of different varieties, and I am not personally familiar with the nuances. Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 12:26 PM, Helmut Raulien <[email protected]> wrote: List, Regarding the question, whether Peirce was a pantheist or not, I was thinking about the meaning of "immanent". If it means that something is contained (nonlocally in this case), like as an epiphenomenon or a trait of something, then something "immanent" implies not being the creator of this thing. But if God is the creator, and still is present everywhere and everywhen, i.e. nonlocally and nontemporally, might this still be pantheism, though without immanence? In this case the universe does not contain God, but the other way round. And the immanence is also the other way: God is not immanent in the universe (or the three of them), but the universe is immanent in God? No, maybe one cannot say so, if one believes in creation as a process, because then in the beginning there must have been a God without a universe. But on the other hand, this might be a too anthropocentric concept of God and of creation: Maybe it is not a linear process, like a carpenter making a chair? About possibilities: Are they creative or privative? Is a possibility an invention, or something that remains when a lot of other items in question have been identified as, or turned out to be, impossibilities? With God as firstness, it should be the first (creative possibility) , I guess. But this might be a hen-and-egg-question, which suggests that there was a beginning: Either a nothing, or an everything. But maybe there was no beginning (like eg. buddhists claim). Best, Helmut ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------- 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 .
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