List: In a draft letter to Victoria Lady Welby, Peirce asserted that "every sign … must be a determination of a quasi-mind," which "is itself a sign, a determinable sign" (SS 195; all citations 1906 unless noted otherwise). He then defined a Sign as "any medium for the communication or extension of a Form" (SS 196, EP 2:477), and went on to describe an instance of semiosis as follows.
CSP: There is the *Intentional *lnterpretant, which is a determination of the mind of the utterer; the *Effectual *lnterpretant, which is a determination of the mind of the interpreter; and the *Communicational *lnterpretant, or say the *Cominterpretant, *which is a determination of that mind into which the minds of utterer and interpreter have to be fused in order that any communication should take place. (SS 196-197, EP 2:478) The Effectual Interpretant is almost certainly the Dynamic Interpretant as the feeling, exertion, or further Sign to which the Sign *actually* determines the interpreting Quasi-mind (cf. CP 4.536). In the secondary literature, there seems to be a general consensus that the Intentional and Communicational Interpretants are the Immediate and Final Interpretants, respectively. For example, the EP editors imply this in a note on the quoted passage. PEP: In the Logic Notebook (MS 339:531, 533, 541-44), the Intentional Interpretant is also called the Intended, Impressional, or Initial Interpretant; the Effectual Interpretant is also called the Factual, Middle, or Dynamic Interpretant; and the Communicational Interpretant is also called the Normal, Habitual, or Eventual Interpretant. (EP 2:555n2) However, Peirce did not actually mention the Intentional, Effectual, or Communicational Interpretants *at all* in that particular manuscript (with pages numbered per the microfilm images [and by Peirce himself], R 339:412[275r], 414[276r], 422-425[283r-286r]). Fortunately, he did make some relevant remarks right after briefly defining the Normal, Dynamic, and Immediate Interpretants. CSP: I have thus omitted the *intended* interpretant. So far as the intention is betrayed in the Sign, it belongs to the immediate Interpretant. So far as it is not so betrayed, it may be the Interpretant of *another* sign, but it is in no sense the interpretant of *that* sign. (R 339:414[276r]) Peirce thus explained why he switched from Intended on one page (275r, dated March 31) to Immediate on the next (276r, dated April 2). Only a few weeks previously (March 9), he had defined the Intentional Interpretant as "a determination of the mind of the utterer" (SS 196, EP 2:478). Apparently he realized that, as such, it obviously *cannot* be an Interpretant of the Sign that the utterer is *currently* uttering; instead, it must be an Interpretant of a *previous* Sign determined by the same Dynamic Object. Hence it is a *Final* Interpretant in the sense of being the *last* outcome of semiosis *prior to* the instance being analyzed; i.e., the Intentional Interpretant is the *antecedent* Sign whose own Dynamic Interpretant is the Sign now being uttered. Moreover, a few months later (August 27), Peirce characterized two of the ten divisions of Signs as being "according to the *Purpose* of the Eventual Interpretant" and "according to the Nature of the Influence the Sign is *intended* to exert" (R 339:424[285r]; emphases added). The latter is the familiar trichotomy for the Relation of the Sign to its *Final *Interpretant as Rheme/Dicisign/Argument, here crossed out and replaced with Seme/Pheme/Delome. As for the Communicational Interpretant, it is important to pay careful attention to how Peirce described the mind of which it is a determination. CSP: This mind may be called the *commens. *It consists of all that is, and must be, well understood between utterer and interpreter, at the outset, in order that the sign in question should fulfill its function … Thus the Form conveyed is always a determination of the dynamical object of the *commind.* (SS 197, EP 2:478) The essential ingredient of the utterer is the Dynamic Object, which determines the Sign; that of the interpreter is the Dynamic Interpretant, which the Sign determines; and that of the Commens is the Sign itself, which welds the utterer and interpreter into one Quasi-mind (cf. CP 4.551). The Sign serves as a medium for the communication of a Form from the Dynamic Object to the Dynamic Interpretant, both of which are *external* to the Sign (cf. EP 2:389-391 & EP 2:544n22). However, any determination of the Commens must be something that is *internal* to the Sign. Therefore, the Communicational Interpretant is the Immediate Interpretant, rather than the Final Interpretant. It is "the interpretant as it is revealed in the right understanding of the Sign itself, and is ordinarily called the *meaning* of the sign" (CP 4.536); i.e., "that which it conveys" (CP 1.339; no date), which is a Form. Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt
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