Mike, List, Thanks for providing this quotation, Mike, the 'spirit' of which I am in full accord. However, it is one with which Peirce himself might have tended to disagree.
CSP: Any philosophical doctrine that should be completely new could hardly fail to prove completely false; but the rivulets at the head of the river of pragmatism are easily traced back to almost any desired antiquity (CP 5.11, EP 2:398-399, 1907). [Thanks to Jon Alan Schmidt for providing this quotation.] One could argue, however, that those "rivulets" of scientific thinking, from even the ancient past, become the "river" of pragmatism (and semeiotic, and much more) principally as the result of Peirce's genius. So while Peirce's view -- that even the greatest of scientific work rests on the shoulders of many thinkers who came before -- is undoubtedly correct from a certain standpoint, as Weiss also famously wrote, many scholars have come to consider Peirce to be "the most original and versatile of American philosophers and America's greatest logician." Weiss, Paul <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Weiss_(philosopher)> (1934). "Peirce, Charles Sanders". *Dictionary of American Biography* <http://www.cspeirce.com/menu/library/aboutcsp/weissbio.htm> So, while the quotation you posted, Mike, might be corrected and developed from the strictly categorial standpoint, it seems to me to be more an excess of Weiss' enthusiasm about Peirce and his work than a scholarly statement about categoriality; and while it may seem a bit glib from the scientific standpoint, that was not its purpose. And, *contra *Peirce in the quotation at the top of this message, I might note that some of Peirce's own associations with 1ns *do* apply to his work. CSP: . . . [1ns is] present, immediate, fresh, new, initiative, original, spontaneous, free, vivid, conscious, and evanescent [I hope not the last! GR]. Only, remember that every description of it must be false to it (A Guess at the Riddle, EP 1:248). Despite Peirce's words quoted at the top of this message, he *was* indeed *most certainly* highly original. Peirce's comments, then, while valid from one point of view (the scientific), from another (the humility of a polymath who studied and deeply respected the work of many other thinkers) seems more an expression of humility in consideration of the age-old greater scientific endeavor. In a rather superficial way, it reminded me of a comment Brahms made in a letter to Clara, Robert Schumann's wife, upon completing his Second Piano Concerto, a massive, four movement, truly monumental work (it is the longest Romantic concerto in the repertoire) which took him several years to complete, that "I have written a very small piano concerto with a very small and pretty scherzo." Brahms was prone to this sort of understated 'joke' so the analogy is weak. My principal point, however, is that Weiss' quotation is not "a scholarly statement about categoriality" (Peirce's life and work would, I have little doubt, necessarily involve all three Universal Categories) but, rather, perhaps an overly-enthusiastic expression of his keen awareness of Peirce's originality, freshness of vision, and the like. Best, Gary R “Let everything happen to you Beauty and terror Just keep going No feeling is final” ― Rainer Maria Rilke *Gary Richmond* *Philosophy and Critical Thinking* *Communication Studies* *LaGuardia College of the City University of New York* On Mon, Jul 12, 2021 at 1:13 AM Mike Bergman <m...@mkbergman.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > "Though Peirce had a preference for the element of Thirdness, I think we > must look at him as essentially a First. He is, in fact, one of the > clearest cases of sheer Firstness in the history of thought. > Unpredictable, fresh, alive, spontaneous, his primary function has been, > and undoubtedly will continue indefinitely to be, that of a source of > ideas powerful enough to withstand the brutalities of existence and > valid enough to make possible a somewhat closer approach to a universal > and lasting truth.” [1, p 192] > > Thanks, Mike > > [1] Weiss, Paul. 1942. “Charles Sanders Peirce.” The Sewanee Review > 50(2): 184–92. > > -- > __________________________________________ > > Michael K. Bergman > Cognonto Corporation > 319.621.5225 > skype:michaelkbergman > http://cognonto.com > http://mkbergman.com > http://www.linkedin.com/in/mkbergman > __________________________________________ > > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ > ► 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 UNSUBSCRIBE PEIRCE-L in the SUBJECT LINE of the > message and nothing in the body. More at > https://list.iupui.edu/sympa/help/user-signoff.html . > ► PEIRCE-L is owned by THE PEIRCE GROUP; moderated by Gary Richmond; and > co-managed by him and Ben Udell. >
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ► 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 UNSUBSCRIBE PEIRCE-L in the SUBJECT LINE of the message and nothing in the body. More at https://list.iupui.edu/sympa/help/user-signoff.html . ► PEIRCE-L is owned by THE PEIRCE GROUP; moderated by Gary Richmond; and co-managed by him and Ben Udell.
