BODY { font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;
}Gary R - you may consider my calls for seeking to increase the depth
and scope of analysis of Peircean semiotic theory by moving its models
into pragmatic examination and analysis of the real world - as an act
of 'intolerance' and a 'downright offense to free inquiry' - but -
obviously, I disagree.
My view is that to restrict Peircean analysis to theory and
terminology is a circular agenda - for the whole point of Peircean
semiosis is its pragmatism - its functional ability to inform us
about the objective real world. If we reject such agendas - then -
how can we know that our interpretations of Peirce, ie, our
theorizing and our models, - are actually pragmatically functional if
we don't move them into that objective world - and test them???
I certainly don't 'block the way of inquiry'. How do I do this?
Surely you aren't suggesting that my calls-for-pragmatism, my calls
to examine how these models and hypotheses actually function to
explain the real world - have any power to stop someone's theorizing,
to 'block the way of inquiry'?! Does anyone actually feel intimidated
by my requests? They might not like them - but - I can say the same
thing about the primary focus of this list - which seems to be on
pure theory. I don't like this focus - since I feel there is no way
to validate a semiosic theory other than by testing it within the
real objective world - but- I'm certainly not 'intimidated' by this
list's focus on pure theory. And I don't feel that this focus 'blocks
the way of inquiry' - I feel that it rejects pragmatics. That's all.
Hardly worth chastising me for being 'intolerant' and 'blocking the
way of inquiry'. Or a 'downright offense to free inquiry'!
Again - Peirce was about more than theory; he was a pragmatist - and
that means examining the real world via his semiosis.
Edwina
On Tue 12/05/20 7:29 PM , Gary Richmond [email protected]
sent:
List,
It would once again appear that Edwina and John expect everyone to
have always and only the same interests as they do. Edwina, for
example, characterizes anything else, notably, theorizing, as "an
irrelevant exercise" undertaken only by people who "prefer the
isolation and comfort of what [she calls] 'the seminar room'. . .
far, far, far from the real empirical objective world." Well, that's
her opinion. I, for one, do not share it.
As I have argued in the past, those of us who have other interests
and points of view find this intolerance a downright offense to free
inquiry. I consider the apparent conviction that, for example, all
the relevant theories in Peirce's semeiotic are settled and that only
practical applications are worthy of further investigation,
narrow-minded and misguided in the extreme. As I recently remarked,
it takes but a glance at the last several years of journal issues of
Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society to see that semeiotic
theory is not only alive and well, but is growing, evolving. There
is, in the view of many, many Peirce scholars, much more theoretical
work to be done.
As I have said before and even all too recently, as list moderator I
see this continued intolerance for the views of others on this list as
amounting to little more than an attempt at seeking "to block the way
of inquiry." In his comments on the 'General Character of the Forum',
Joseph Ransdell, the founder of this forum, referred to the opposite
of this narrow-mindedness as "generosity of attitude."
https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/PEIRCE-L/PEIRCE-L.HTM#forum-character
[1]
I will remind Peirce-L members that I serve as moderator of this
list solely at the pleasure of The Peirce Group which has always
given me its full support for my moderation principles and practices.
Is there really anyone in this forum who is prepared to argue again
this principle of a "generosity of attitude" as just set forth? If
so, I would be eager to read that argument.
Gary Richmond (writing as list moderator)
"TIME IS NOT A RENEWABLE RESOURCE." GNOX
Gary Richmond
Philosophy and Critical ThinkingCommunication StudiesLaGuardia
College of the City University of New York
Links:
------
[1]
https://arisbe.sitehost.iu.edu/PEIRCE-L/PEIRCE-L.HTM#forum-character
-----------------------------
PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L
to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to [email protected] . To
UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to [email protected] with the
line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at
http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm .
