Gary F, Edwina, Jon AS GF
My suggestion is that Peirce’s three categories or “elements” can be regarded as elements of Aristotelian Form: Quality is the Firstness of Form, Actuality is the Secondness of Form, and Growth is the Thirdness of Form. As for Aristotelian Matter, it is simply indeterminate substance, or the capacity to be determined (by Form), thus gaining embodied individuality or determinate existence.
ET
I fully agree with your outline.
I partly agree. The categories of 1ns, 2ns, 3ns are ways of classifying experiences in the phaneron, not the physical things that caused the experiences. GF
Peirce says in the excerpt Jon quoted, “it is always the Aristotelian matter I speak of” — not physical matter in the modern sense.
That is the critical issue. Any physical entity may be classified in an open-ended variety of ways. Aristotle's word is a symbol that he used in formulating his theory. But the symbols of any theory are related to the physical world by criteria proper to that theory. Theories as different as Aristotle's, Newton's, Einstein's, Heisenberg's, Dirac's... have theoretical terms with different mappings to what people call "reality". Some of those terms may have approximate overlaps, but the differences are critical. JAS
As for Entelechy, Peirce quite explicitly associated that term (as well as the perfect sign) with the ideal end of semiosis--that toward which growth is proceeding, not the process of growth itself. CSP: We may adopt the word to mean the very fact, that is, the ideal sign which should be quite perfect, and so identical,--in such identity as a sign may have,--with the very matter denoted united with the very form signified by it.
I agree. But as Peirce emphasized, every so-called "law of science" is fallible. We can't assume that any fact is an ideal, perfect sign that is identical with some aspect of reality. I also agree with the following point: GF
And of course Peirce was not talking about sexuality in the physical sense either...
Yes. He was using a "sexy" metaphor, which could be a distraction. The Chinese yinyang sign may be interpreted in an open-ended variety of ways, one of which happens to be sex. For that reason, it would closer to the ideal, but not perfect. (See the attached yinyang.png) John
----------------------------- PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to peirce-L@list.iupui.edu . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to l...@list.iupui.edu with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm .
