Jon A, Jeff D, and Gary F, JA
Why don't we put this on hold for later discussion?
I was about to send the following when your note appeared in my inbox. It should be sufficient for the word 'information', but we can discuss other issues later. JD
I take the following passage to indicate that Peirce changed his use of "depth" and "breadth" in some respects some time between 1867 and 1896. The change was a broadening of the use of both terms.
GF
What Peirce wrote in 1893 is that he had broadened the application of the terms, i.e. the breadth of the propositions involving them. That does not mean that their depth, or “signification” as Peirce often called it, changed in any way;
I agree. One example I use is the broadening of the word 'number' from integers to rational numbers to irrational numbers to complex numbers to quaternions... That broadens the application of the word, but it does not make the definitions for its earlier uses obsolete. For any particular application, the definition can be narrowed by adding an adjective, such as real, complex, hypercomplex... JA
BTW, is it really necessary to point out once again that the job of a lexicographer presenting a survey of significant usages in common or technical is very different from the role of a philosopher expounding his or her own conception?
Many of Peirce's definitions for the Century Dictionary or Baldwin's dictionary include short philosophical essays. They are as significant for his Opera Omnia as any other publications. And note his Ethics of Terminology. From EP 2.265:
The first rule of good taste in writing is to use words whose meanings will not be misunderstood
Implication: For a common word such as 'information', a dictionary that cites dates for the word senses, such as the OED, would be sufficient to determine what Peirce had intended. But when he wrote the definition himself, that's even better: I'm sure he would not use a word in a sense that was inconsistent with his own definition. John
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