List:
I should have checked the Pietarinen transcriptions before posting.
CSP: The nature of the universe or universes of discourse (for several may
be referred to in a single assertion) in the rather unusual cases in which
such precision is required, is denoted either by using modifications of the
heraldic tinctures, marked in something like the usual manner in pale ink
upon the surface, or by scribing the graphs in colored inks. In the former
method it is usual to employ the different metals (or, argent, fur, and
plomb) to mark the different kinds of existence or actuality, the different
colours (azure, gules, vert, purpur) for the different kinds of
possibility,—possibility consisting of ignorance, of variety, of power, of
futurity; and the furs (sable, ermine, vair, potent), for the different
kinds of intention. (R 670:19-20[18-19]; 1911 June 12-13)
This confirms that according to Peirce, there are *exactly four* different
kinds of actuality, possibility, and intention; but he only names them in
the case of possibility, and does not elaborate on exactly what ignorance,
variety, power and futurity mean in this context. I also just discovered
that Don Roberts, on page 93 of *The Existential Graphs of Charles S.
Peirce*, quotes the following explanation.
CSP: Different states of things may all be Actual and yet not Actual
*together*; and the same is true of the Possible and the Destined. Two
graphs in the same *Province*, i.e. on the same continuously tinctured
surface will be asserted, not merely as True, but as True *together*.
Hence, since four tinctures are necessary to break the continuity between
any two parts of any ordinary surface, four metals, four colors, and four
furs will be required. (R 295:44; 1906)
It seems that the basis for providing *four *tinctures within each mode was
primarily *practical*, rather than *theoretical*. On page 94, Roberts
offers his guess as to what Peirce might have intended each tincture to
represent, along with a suggested color as an alternative.
- Metal (Actuality)
- Argent (white) - "The actual or true in a general or ordinary
sense."
- Or (cream) - "The actual or true in some special sense."
- Fer - not used
- Plomb - not used
- Color (Possibility)
- Azure (blue) - "Dark blue: logical possibility. Light blue:
subjective possibility."
- Gules (red) - "Objective possibility."
- Vert (green) - "What is in the interrogative mood."
- Purpure (purple) - "Freedom or ability."
- Fur (Intention)
- Sable (gray) - "The metaphysically, or rationally, or secondarily
necessitated."
- Ermine (yellow) - "Purpose or intention."
- Vair (brown) - "The commanded."
- Potent (orange) - "The compelled."
Regards,
Jon S.
On Wed, Apr 3, 2019 at 6:34 PM Jon Alan Schmidt <[email protected]>
wrote:
> Jeff, Gary F., List:
>
> The footnote quoted by Jeff about "the quaternion of metals" is from
> "Prolegomena" (1906), while the comment quoted by Gary F. about "different
> dimensions of the logical Universe" is from "Bedrock" (1908). (This is not
> obvious in the electronic version of CP, where all of the footnotes--both
> Peirce's own and those provided by the editors--are jumbled together; I had
> to look at the original published version
> <http://www.pragmaticism.net/works/csp_ms/P01128.pdf> of "Prolegomena" in
> order to disentangle them.) Consequently, it seems quite tenuous to link
> the two concepts, such that "the quaternion of metals" somehow corresponds
> to "four dimensions--one real and three imaginary."
>
> In fact, Peirce wrote that *all four* Metal tinctures correspond to
> Actuality, while Color is used for Possibility and Fur is used for
> Intention (CP 4.554). However, he did not spell out in "Prolegomena" *why
> *there are *exactly four* tinctures for each Mode of Being. On the other
> hand, in "Bedrock" he referred to "the different tints representing
> different kinds of possibility" (CP 4.578). Can we perhaps infer from this
> that there are *exactly four* different kinds of Possibility, as well as
> *exactly
> four *different kinds of Actuality and *exactly four* different kinds of
> Intention? If so, what are they?
>
> As for the "different dimensions of the logical Universe," Peirce
> explicitly attributed this concept to his former student, O. H. Mitchell;
> and in two alternative drafts of "Bedrock," he stated the following.
>
> CSP: Yet since the Universe, which force[s] upon us all those enduring
> thoughts that we call truths, makes its power felt in three ways so utterly
> different that we may well liken them to a set of three mutually
> perpendicular directions from which any object may be viewed, we must
> distinguish, Firstly ... the *Universe of Real Capacities*; then,
> Secondly ... *the Universe of Actual Fact*; and Thirdly ... the *Universe
> of Tendencies *... I have suggested [in "Prolegomena"] that we resort to
> the heraldic tinctures; to wit, to *color *for the Universe of
> Capacities, to *metal *for the Universe of actuality, and to *fur *for
> the universe of tendencies ... (R 300:72-75[37-40])
>
>
> CSP: As to the Mitchellian Dimensions of the Universe, it is easy to see
> that their mutual relations,--imaged by perpendicularities in sets of
> three,--are relations between different Modalities. (R 300:76[38])
>
>
> Hence there are *only three* such dimensions, not four; and they
> correspond *directly *to the three Universes of Capacities, Actualities,
> and Tendencies--i.e., the three Modes of Tincture, not the four different
> tinctures *within *any one of them. It thus seems clear to me that in
> the "Prolegomena" footnote, Peirce intended *only *the first sense of
> "quaternion," and *not *also the third sense as Jeff conjectured.
>
> 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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