John, list,
I think we all agree that Peirce’s concept of information has significant advantages over Shannon’s, for semiotic purposes. But in reference to his current monologue, Jon appears to be claiming that Peirce’s early (1866-7) concept of “information” is better (less “nominalistic”) than Peirce’s own later concept of information. But when I published my own paper on Peirce’s concept of information in 2010, http://gnusystems.ca/Rehabit.htm, I claimed that Peirce’s concept of information did NOT change over the years, and that his usages of “breadth” and “depth” (for what are now usually called “extension” and “intension”) in the early 1900s are no different from his 1867 usages. I have yet to see any reason to change my mind about that. So, Jon, I would very much like to your evidence for the difference you claim to see. But, please, don’t tell us that we can’t possibly understand your point unless we read most of your collected works. I’d like to see the evidence in the form of citations from late Peirce (since you’ve already given us those from 1866), along with your present remarks to the point, with a minimum of obfuscation, and without vague remarks about how badly other people interpret Peirce. Sorry if this sounds impatient, but I admire John’s conciseness and would like to see more of that from the rest of us on the list. Gary f. -----Original Message----- From: John F Sowa [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: 28-Jun-17 16:16 To: [email protected] Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Peirce's own definition of 'information' In my previous note, I forgot to check Peirce's own definition in the _Century Dictionary_. Whenever there is any debate about Peirce's use of a word, it's useful to check whether he happened to have defined that word in the _Century Dictionary_. Following is his word list: <http://www.pragmaticism.net/peirce_cendict_wordlist.pdf> http://www.pragmaticism.net/peirce_cendict_wordlist.pdf Then look up that word and get a .JPG image of the page: <http://www.global-language.com/CENTURY/> http://www.global-language.com/CENTURY/ For the word 'information', I took the above steps and extracted his definition and quotations. See the attached information.jpg Note the emphasis on the method of communication or derivation. John
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