Jon, List

It is deductively valid if you fill in the gap re thing in itself, which I have 
done/explained/qualified within the various formalism. It just assumes basic 
knowledge of that.


JAS: "As I keep emphasizing, what is at issue is not whether the finite 
community of humans can ever actually attain knowledge of things as they are as 
the result of our finite inquiries, it is whether it would be possible for an 
infinite community to attain knowledge of things as they are as the result of 
infinite inquiry."


I don't see how that is possible except as some variety of ideal which Kant, 
differentially, would not even disagree with (as in stressed objectivity, "fire 
is hot", and mutual comprehension). Throwing it to an infinite community, what 
effect does that have? Because the nature of infinity is that it continues. Do 
you have knowlede of an object as it is in itself after that ideal time? 
Logically, it seems to me, the key isn't "infinite community" but whether it is 
necessary to infer the existence of the thing in itself. For if this is 
necessary, then it matters not if the period of time be finite or infinite.

And, again, I side with Peirce in the Welby exerpt. I believe it is necessary.

Best

Jack
________________________________
From: peirce-l-requ...@list.iupui.edu <peirce-l-requ...@list.iupui.edu> on 
behalf of Jon Alan Schmidt <jonalanschm...@gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, June 3, 2023 4:01 AM
To: Peirce-L <peirce-l@list.iupui.edu>
Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] [EXTERNAL] Re: The Thing In Itself (Kant and Peirce - 
Again). (Assemblage Formalisms - inference).

Jack, List:

I appreciate the summary as requested, but that argumentation is not 
deductively valid. Indeed, our impressions of things are not identical to those 
things (they are signs of them), and those things in themselves are as they are 
regardless of our impressions of them (dynamical objects). Nevertheless, it 
does not follow necessarily that our impressions of things--and the inferences 
that we subsequently draw from them (dynamical interpretants)--cannot represent 
those things as they are in themselves, i.e., that we cannot cognize those 
things as they are in themselves (final interpretant).

Indeed, Peirce said, "We can never attain knowledge of things as they are. We 
can only know their human aspect" (SS 141, 1911). However, this does not at all 
contradict his earlier explicit and repeated denials of an incognizable 
thing-in-itself. As I keep emphasizing, what is at issue is not whether the 
finite community of humans can ever actually attain knowledge of things as they 
are as the result of our finite inquiries, it is whether it would be possible 
for an infinite community to attain knowledge of things as they are as the 
result of infinite inquiry.

Regards,

Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA
Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian
www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt<http://www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt> / 
twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt<http://twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt>

On Fri, Jun 2, 2023 at 4:04 PM JACK ROBERT KELLY CODY 
<jack.cody.2...@mumail.ie<mailto:jack.cody.2...@mumail.ie>> wrote:
Jon, List,

1. Things impress upon me,
2. My impressions of those things are not those things.
3. If 2, and I don't see how we can deny that, then
4. such things exist in themselves regardless of how they impress upon us.
5. Thus, we cannot cognize that which necessarily exist in themselves, beyond 
our impressions (formal) of them.

That is the most basic format of the Kantian distinction.

I must also include this, ‘We can never attain knowledge of things as they are. 
We can only know their human aspect”.

May 20, 1911, Letter to Lady Welby.

Now, I can very well infer the thing in itself but I cannot possibly cognize it 
for it is necessarily beyond me. How can my mental impressions which are of 
things, but not those things, ever cognize those things as they are in 
themselves? The very mediatory aspect of representation necessitates that such 
things are in themselves.

Formally, I have outlined this very precisely (natural language muddies things) 
and it's not ambiguous. It is upon me to put those formalisms here rather than 
muddled chatgpt postings, but I do know that they stand, consistently in all 
manner of logical forms.

John Sowa made a comment about the "various Peirces". I think that is accurate. 
As Peirce contradicts himself, as all people do, being fallible, when it comes 
to thing in itself for he was continuously evolving as scholar (polymath) until 
his death.

Best,

Jack
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