Tom,list,
Well put, well put, indeed!
Also, I wish to remind you all, that CSP did not view lawa of nature as
eternally unchangable. To his mind, tehy do change, albeit mostly very,
very slowly.
Think about climate change. With it very, very slow changes meet changes
with other time-scales.
Mother nature does not work exaclty in the same ways it did by the time
of our ancients.
Do remember CSP's work on the pendulum, as well.
Best regars,
Kirsti Määttänen
Thomas903 kirjoitti 17.4.2017 20:18:
Group ~
Going back to the original question, I believe a "law of nature" is
characterized differently, in terms of Sign relationships, depending
upon one of three ('ness) perspectives from which the "law of nature"
is being considered:
1 - To Peirce-Emerson-The Sphinx: Existence consists solely of: (a)
objects which (b) behave logically. To Peirce, behaving logically is
the ONLY law of nature. It is the unifying element of all of
existence, and represents ultimate Truth.
From this perspective (of ultimate Truth), phenomena labeled by Man as
"laws of nature" (such as the law of gravity) are physical potentials
of existence (firstness), which do not necessarily occur everywhere,
or in all times.
2 - To an object, like Man, affected by but unable to affect a "law of
nature," the law is a physical regularity in its environment that can
be counted on without fail. It enters the Man's logic-decision
calculus as an object or brute force (secondness).
3 - Finally, the objects comprising the environment (i.e., the
environment responsible for the "law of nature" that Man perceives)
are themselves engaged in habitual-optimizing behaviors (thirdness).
These alternating perspectives for perceiving-assigning Signs carry
over to other objects, apart from "laws of nature."
For example, subatomic particles that obey Pragmatic Logic will in
certain environmental settings evolve into a uranium atom. In other
environments, those particles would have evolved into something else.
From this perspective, a "uranium atom" is a potential (firstness
Sign) of a universe of logical particles.
To Man, the uranium atom has specific-fixed physical qualities,
including decaying at a certain fixed/predictable rate. Here, the
uranium atom is an object, with a secondness Sign.
From the perspective of the particles comprising the uranium atom,
presently they are experiencing the optimizing relationship that
earlier evolved between them (thirdness). However, having landed on
earth, the particles comprising the uranium atom find themselves in an
inhospitable environment (relative to that of the u-atom's "birth").
Therefore, the original habits of the particles are no longer optimal.
The decay of the uranium atom represents a transition phase
(secondness activities), where the particles seek new optimizing
actives appropriate for their earth environment (thirdness).
Regards,
Tom Wyrick
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