Edwina, List: ET: And Peirce referred to cognition, to Thirdness, as an action. Synthetic consciousness, mediation, is not a passive consciousness [which is 1ns] but is active. 1.377/8
No, he did not; at least, certainly not in the cited passage. In fact, this is a blatantly inaccurate paraphrase of it, so I will quote it in full. CSP: It seems, then, that the true categories of consciousness are: first, feeling, the consciousness which can be included with an instant of time, passive consciousness of quality, without recognition or analysis; second, consciousness of an interruption into the field of consciousness, sense of resistance, of an external fact, of another something; third, synthetic consciousness, binding time together, sense of learning, thought. If we accept these [as] the fundamental elementary modes of consciousness, they afford a psychological explanation of the three logical conceptions of quality, relation, and synthesis or mediation. The conception of quality, which is absolutely simple in itself and yet viewed in its relations is seen to be full of variety, would arise whenever feeling or the singular consciousness becomes prominent. The conception of relation comes from the dual consciousness or sense of action and reaction. The conception of mediation springs out of the plural consciousness or sense of learning. (CP 1.377-378; 1887-1888) Peirce here *did not* characterize mediation as "active," or even directly contrast "passive consciousness" (1ns) with "synthetic consciousness" (3ns) so as to *imply *that the latter is active. On the contrary, he also mentioned "consciousness of an interruption" (2ns), and then went on to call it "dual consciousness or sense of action and reaction." In other words, it is clearly the latter type of consciousness (2ns), rather than synthetic consciousness (3ns), that is properly described as *active*. ET: Thirdness is in my understanding of Peirce a dynamic process, which is to say, an action. No. For Peirce, anything "dynamic" is associated with 2ns, not 3ns. This is intrinsic to his analysis of a Sign as having a *Dynamic *Object and producing *Dynamic *Interpretants by means of its *actual *Instances. ET: As such, it mediates, it synthesizes, it generalizes. These are all actions - powerful actions. Again, no. For Peirce, mediating, synthesizing, and generalizing are indeed powerful, but they are *not *actions. They are manifestations of 3ns, while actions are *always and only* manifestations of 2ns. As Gary R. already pointed out, *in Peirce's terminology*, molding reactions is *not* an action; imparting a quality to reactions is *not* an action; and bringing things into relation with each other is *not *an action. CSP: It is to be observed that a sign has its being in the *power *to bring about a determination of a Matter to a Form, not in an *act *of bringing it about. There are several good arguments to show that this is the case. Perhaps none of them is more conclusive than the circumstance that there is no such act. For an act has a Matter as its subject. It is the union of Matter and Form. But a sign is not Matter. An act is individual. The sign only exists in replicas. (NEM 4:300; 1904) Finally, in my opinion--and, I believe, in Peirce's--someone who is not interested in terminology is evidently not interested in *making our ideas clear*. Carefully selecting and defining the terms that we use to describe what is going on is not merely an academic exercise for the seminar room, but *pragmatically critical *for understanding and discussing what is actually happening in the real world. CSP: Suffice it to say once more that pragmatism is, in itself ... merely a method of ascertaining the meanings of hard words and of abstract concepts. All pragmatists of whatsoever stripe will cordially assent to that statement. (CP 5.464, EP 2:400; 1907) Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Thu, Aug 9, 2018 at 3:17 PM, Edwina Taborsky <[email protected]> wrote: > JAS, list > > And Peirce referred to cognition, to Thirdness, as an action. > Synthetic consciousness, mediation, is not a passive consciousness [which > is 1ns] but is active. 1.377/8 > > That is, semiosis as a process does not confine action to dyadic act-react > kinesis between two existential things. Thirdness is in my understanding of > Peirce a dynamic process, which is to say, an action. As such, it mediates, > it synthesizes, it generalizes. These are all actions - powerful actions. > > "Not only will meaning always, more or less, in the long run mould > reactions to itself, but it is only in doing so that its own being cosists. > For this reason I call this element of the phenomenon or object of thought > the element of Thirdness. It is that which is what it is by virtue of > imparting a quality to reactions in the future" 1.343. > > "The third is that which is what it is owing to things between which it > mediates and which it brings into relation to each other" 1.356 > > This action, of bringing things into mutual relationships is a frequent > description by Peirce, of Thirdness. > > Now - to me, such is an action... A plural interaction mediating and > generating the commonalities among separate things > > I am not sure if we should continue this discussion, since we both hold to > different views and are probably boring the list. > > Edwina >
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