Jon S, List,
Having spent some time digging for textual evidence--one way or the other--concerning the order of determination in the relations between objects, signs and interpretants, here is an alternate reading based on what I've found thus far. On the model presented in NDTR, the order is simply, 1) object determines sign 2) sign determines interpretant 3) object determines interpretant via the mediation of the sign (and possibly also via the relations between the object and sign, on the one hand, and the sign and interpretant, on the other). This appears, at first glance, to be somewhat at odds with the order of determination provided later, when the division between two objects and three interpretants is made (e.g., see the interpretation by Lieb in the collection of letters between Peirce and Lady Welby). Having spent more time digging, here is a simplified version of my still tentative and rather incomplete reconstruction of what Peirce seems to be saying about the relations of determination. 1) a dynamical object determines sign 2) the sign determines each of the three interpretants 3) the dynamical object determines the three interpretants to stand in a triadic relation, one to the others via the mediation of the sign and the relations that it stands to object and interpretant. 4) the interpretants (largely the final) determines a mental image of the relation that holds between the dynamical object and sign (e.g., its being a icon, index or symbol) to stand in a relation of correspondence with the object. The sign represents that relation of correspondence between mental image (which functions as the immediate object) and the dynamical object. I've expressed the fourth point in overly complicated terms, but I hope the general idea comes through. On this reading of the later texts, Peirce is later elaborating on the earlier account in NDTR--but in a manner that is entirely consonant with what he claimed there. For my part, I think that the relations of determination should be understood as applying at three levels that are considered strata--that of possibles, existents and necessitants. Where there is a general that serves as a necessitant, two existents are, in their possible characters, determined in accord with the general rule. When each of the three correlates has the character of a thought sign, it is one habit determining another habit in accord with a general rule. In this sort of case involving three thought-signs as correlates, each of the habits is embodied in existents having possible characters. And so on. --Jeff Jeffrey Downard Associate Professor Department of Philosophy Northern Arizona University (o) 928 523-8354 ________________________________ From: Jon Alan Schmidt <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, April 3, 2018 5:22:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Re: Order of Determination List: If the trichotomy for the S-If Relation came before the one for the Immediate Interpretant, then a Seme could not be scribed with any Lines of Identity, and only a Delome could be scribed with more than one. However, there are Semes with one Line of Identity and Phemes with multiple Lines of Identity; therefore, the trichotomy for the S-If Relation must come after the one for the Immediate Interpretant. This is consistent with Short's a posteriori assessment, which also--along with Peirce's 1904 letter to Lady Welby (CP 8.338)--established that the S-Id division comes after the S-If division. Icon/Index/Symbol for the Od-S Relation was the first trichotomy that Peirce identified. The well-known 1903 classification indicates that it comes after the division based on the Sign itself--initially according to its Mode of Being, later its Mode of Apprehension or Presentation--and before the division based on the S-If Relation. Hence the only unanswered question regarding where to situate it in the 1908 order of determination is whether it comes before, after, or in the midst of the three divisions based on the different Interpretants. Although a Graph-Instance on the Phemic Sheet involves Icons and Indices, it is always fundamentally a Symbol--"a sign which is fit to serve as such simply because it will be so interpreted" (EP 2:307; 1904). This means that the trichotomy for the Od-S Relation must come before the one for the Immediate Interpretant, since all three of the latter's Modes of Presentation are feasible. If it also comes before the ones for the other two Interpretants, then both of the following statements must be true. * An Icon can only be a Sign whose Final Interpretant's purpose is Gratific, and whose Dynamic Interpretant is a feeling (Sympathetic). * Only a Symbol can be a Sign whose Final Interpretant's purpose is to produce self-control (Temperative), and whose Dynamic Interpretant is another Sign (Usual). Once again, these seem fairly straightforward and plausible. A pure Icon signifies characters without denoting an Object, so it can only be employed to produce a feeling, not an exertion or another Sign. An Index tends to have a compulsive effect, rather than fostering a self-controlled semiotic response by the interpreting Quasi-mind. Finally, the triadic Od-S-If Relation is divided according to "the Nature of the Assurance of the Utterance" as Instinct/Experience/Form (EP 2:490; 1908). These correspond to the three types of Submitted Arguments (Indicative Delomes), as reflected in Peirce's earlier names of Abducent/Inducent/Deducent (R 339:424[285r]; 1906); so this trichotomy must come after the ones for both S-If and S-Id. In summary, I now believe that the complete order of determination--the logical sequence of the semiotic Correlates and their Relations, not necessarily their temporal sequence in a concrete instance of semiosis--is as follows. 1. Mode of Being of the Dynamic Object (Od) - Abstractive, Concretive, Collective. 2. Mode of Presentation of the Immediate Object (Oi) - Descriptive, Designative, Copulative. 3. Mode of Apprehension or Presentation of the Sign (S) - Tone, Token, Type. 4. Nature of Reference (Od-S) - Icon, Index, Symbol. 5. Purpose of the Final Interpretant (If) - Gratific, Actuous (to produce action), Temperative (to produce self-control). 6. Mode of Being of the Dynamic Interpretant (Id) - Sympathetic (feeling), Percussive (exertion), Usual (another Sign). 7. Mode of Presentation of the Immediate Interpretant (Ii) - Hypothetic, Categorical, Relative. 8. Nature of Intended Influence (S-If) - Seme (rheme/term), Pheme (dicisign/proposition), Delome (argument). 9. Manner of Appeal (S-Id) - Suggestive (presented), Imperative (urged), Indicative (submitted). 10. Nature of Assurance (S-Od-If) - Abducent (instinct), Inducent (experience), Deducent (form). As I have noted previously, each of the two internal Correlates (Oi and Ii), as well as the Sign itself, is divided according to its phaneroscopic nature; each of the two external Correlates (Od and Id) is divided according to its ontological nature; and the one final Correlate (If) is divided according to its normative nature. Evidently the boundaries between Peirce's three branches of philosophy are not so sharp as to keep them completely separate, at least when it comes to Sign classification. Regards, Jon S. On Sun, Apr 1, 2018 at 3:31 PM, Jon Alan Schmidt <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: List: Although it might seem reasonable to think that the order of determination of the three Interpretants would be from possibility (Ii) to actuality (Id) to habit or tendency (If), Peirce explicitly stated otherwise when discussing the feasible combinations of the divisions for the Immediate Object and the Sign itself. CSP: In general, it is of the essence of a Real Tendency that no Actual Occurrence can of itself determine it in any way … But an Actual Occurrence always determines the Possibility of its character … It is, if possible, still more obvious that Possibility can never determine Actuality … (EP 2:480; 1908) The same principle that guides Sign classification when moving from one trichotomy to the next applies here--the actual cannot determine the habitual, and the possible cannot determine the actual. Hence the sequence of Interpretants should be reversed (If, Id, Ii); and if this is correct, then both of the following statements must be true in accordance with Peirce's 1908 taxonomy. * A Sign whose Final Interpretant's purpose is Gratific can only determine a feeling as its Dynamic Interpretant (Sympathetic). * Only a Sign whose Final Interpretant's purpose is to produce self-control (Temperative) can determine another Sign as its Dynamic Interpretant (Usual). These seem fairly straightforward and plausible; essentially, the kind of effect that the Sign is destined to produce (If) governs which kinds of actual effects its Replicas can have on interpreting Quasi-minds (Id), just like a law of nature as a Real general--an inveterate habit--governs the behavior of existing Things. All Signs have a Dynamic Interpretant that includes feeling, but only some also "evoke some kind of effort," whether mental or physical; and only some of those produce another Sign-Replica (EP 2:409 and cf. CP 5.475-476; both 1907). Furthermore, both of the following statements must also be true. * A Sign that determines a feeling as its Dynamic Interpretant (Sympathetic) can only present its Immediate Interpretant as Hypothetic. * Only a Sign that determines another Sign as its Dynamic Interpretant (Usual) can present its Immediate Interpretant as Relative. Evaluation in this case hinges on clarifying Peirce's 1908 division according to the Immediate Interpretant into Hypothetic/Categorical/Relative, which he offered "with great hesitation" (CP 8.369, EP 2:489), although it appeared in his Logic Notebook as early as 1906 (R 339:423-424[284r-285r]). He presumably derived the terms themselves from three types of propositions (CP 2.271; 1903). * Hypothetical - "any proposition compounded of propositions" such that it is "either conditional, copulative, or disjunctive." * Categorical - any proposition "not concerned with the identity of more than one individual." * Relative - any proposition "concerned with the identity of more than one individual." For hypothetical propositions, it seems likely that Peirce primarily had conditionals in mind because of their modal nature. CSP: The quantified subject of a hypothetical proposition is a possibility, or possible case, or possible state of things. In its primitive sense, that which is possible is a hypothesis which in a given state of information is not known, and cannot certainly be inferred, to be false. (CP 2.347; c. 1895) Categorical propositions are routinely employed in first-order predicate logic. CSP: A categorical proposition is one whose immediate parts are terms … The subject of a categorical proposition is that concerning which something is said, the predicate is that which is said of it … Categorical propositions are said to be divided according to their Quantity, into the universal, the particular, the indefinite, and the singular. (CP 4.40-42; 1893) Peirce considered hypothetical propositions to be logically equivalent to categorical propositions--e.g., "if A then B" in propositional calculus corresponds to "all A is B" in predicate calculus--and relative propositions are basically just complex categorical propositions. However, the three types are readily distinguishable in the Existential Graphs by the number of Lines of Identity that they require--none for a hypothetical proposition, exactly one for a categorical proposition, and more than one for a relative proposition (R 481:10; no date). This seems like an important clue, since Peirce described the Phemic Sheet as follows (CP 4.550-553; 1906). * "… the Quasi-mind of all the Signs represented on the Diagram." * The means by which "two parties [Graphist and Interpreter] collaborate in composing a Pheme, and in operating upon this so as to develop a Delome." * "… the Quasi-mind in which the Graphist and Interpreter are at one …" * "… a Pheme of all that is tacitly taken for granted between the Graphist and Interpreter, from the outset of their discussion …" In other words, the Phemic Sheet represents the Commens, which is precisely what the Communicational Interpretant determines (EP 2:478; 1906). When a Sign-Replica is scribed as a Graph-Instance on it (cf. CP 4.536; 1906), the Immediate Interpretant is presented as Hypothetic if there are no Lines of Identity, as Categorical if there is just one, and as Relative if there are two or more. The Phemic Sheet is strictly a logical Quasi-mind; it can only be determined to another Sign as the Dynamic Interpretant of a previous Sign (Usual). Since all three Modes of Presentation of the Immediate Interpretant are still feasible, that trichotomy must indeed come after the one for the Mode of Being of the Dynamic Interpretant. Hence the order of determination of the three Interpretants is If, Id, Ii; and since Peirce explicitly indicated that Od, Oi, and S precede these (EP 2:481; 1908), only the arrangement of the Relation trichotomies remains to be established. Regards, Jon S. On Sat, Mar 31, 2018 at 2:21 PM, Jon Alan Schmidt <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote: List: I am taking a (probably brief) break here from my ongoing metaphysical musings to tackle an unsettled aspect of Peirce's semeiotic; specifically, his speculative grammar In a 1908 letter to Victoria Lady Welby, he spelled out the rule that governs which Sign classifications are viable in accordance with the "order of determination," the logical sequence of divisions; but he then proceeded to specify it only for the six Correlates, not for their four Relations. CSP: It is evident that a Possible can determine nothing but a Possible; it is equally so that a Necessitant can be determined by nothing but a Necessitant. Hence it follows from the Definition of a Sign that since the Dynamoid Object determines the Immediate Object, which determines the Sign itself, which determines the Destinate Interpretant, which determines the Effective Interpretant, which determines the Explicit Interpretant, the six trichotomies, instead of determining 729 classes of signs, as they would if they were independent, only yield 28 classes; and if, as I strongly opine (not to say almost prove) there are four other trichotomies of signs of the same order of importance, instead of making 59,049 classes, these will only come to 66. (EP 2:481) Unfortunately, once again, Peirce did not use his most common terms for the three Interpretants--Immediate, Dynamic, and Final. However, once again, Effective almost certainly corresponds to the Dynamic Interpretant as the feeling, exertion, or further Sign to which the Sign actually determines an interpreting Quasi-mind. In this case, the secondary literature reflects varying opinions regarding the other two Interpretants--do Destinate and Explicit correspond to Immediate and Final, respectively, or the other way around? I have been advocating the first option for some time now, mainly because it accords with the following definitions. * Immediate Interpretant (Ii) - the range of possible feelings/actions/thoughts that the Sign may produce. * Dynamic Interpretant (Id) - any actual feeling/action/thought that the Sign does produce. * Final Interpretant (If) - the habit of feeling/action/thought that the Sign would produce. In Peirce's semiotic terminology, determination is not strictly synonymous with causation, as the notion of determinism would imply. Instead, its meaning is more along the lines of constraint, delimitation, or simply making something more determinate. The actual is a subset of the possible, and the habitual only comes about by reiteration--either of the possible in the Inner World, or of the actual in the Outer World (CP 5.487, EP 2:413; 1907). Hence if these definitions and sequence are correct, it seems that the order of determination conveniently matches their temporal succession in any concrete instance of semiosis (Ii, Id, If). As for the Relation trichotomies, both a 1904 letter from Peirce to Lady Welby (CP 8.338) and a careful a posteriori assessment by T. L. Short in his 2007 book, Peirce's Theory of Signs (pp. 248-256), indicate that the division into Presented/Urged/Submitted (later Suggestive/Imperative/Indicative) comes after the division into Rheme/Dicisign/Argument (later Seme/Pheme/Delome). However, Peirce unwaveringly associated the latter with the Sign's Relation to its Final Interpretant (S-If), which entails that S-If determines S-Id. In the past, I have proposed switching these assignments, since it seems more consistent to arrange the Relation trichotomies in the same sequence as their corresponding Correlate trichotomies; but as I have always acknowledged, this would be a clear deviation from Peirce. Could it be that instead the Final Interpretant determines the Dynamic Interpretant, which determines the Immediate Interpretant? This would entail that the Destinate and Explicit Interpretants are the Final and Immediate Interpretants, respectively. After all, the terminology itself suggests such a correspondence--the Immediate Interpretant is "explicit" in the sense of being "revealed in the right understanding of the Sign itself" (CP 4.536; 1906), because it is "represented or signified in the Sign" (CP 8.434, EP 2:482; 1908); and Peirce often associated that which is "destined" with that which is "final," even doing so specifically with respect to habits of conduct and the ideal outcome of inquiry as the "final opinion." CSP: Now, just as conduct controlled by ethical reason tends toward fixing certain habits of conduct, the nature of which … does not depend upon any accidental circumstances, and in that sense, may be said to be destined; so, thought, controlled by a rational experimental logic, tends to the fixation of certain opinions, equally destined, the nature of which will be the same in the end … (CP 5.430, EP 2:342; 1905) CSP: I hold that truth's independence of individual opinions is due (so far as there is any "truth") to its being the predestined result to which sufficient inquiry would ultimately lead. (CP 5.494, EP 2:419; 1907) The next step will be to explore some implications of this alternative. Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt<http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt> - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt<http://twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt>
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