Michale Thank you for this excellent post. You are exactly right
Peirce's agapastic semiosis is a dynamic and generative process- and it explains not merely the increasing complexity of the physicochemical and biological realms [which are, indeed, complex adaptive systems,] but also, explains the socioeconomic world of our species. As you say - wealth creation, which is all about a growth economy- - is quite different from the no-growth zero sum wealth transfer which is found in all no growth steady state populations [ before the industrial age]. And I also am a strong supporter of Peirce’s three categories, with the interplay between Firstnerss [ randomnness, chance, freedom]; steady-state interaction [Secondness] and the development of new habits of organization [ Thirdness]. One can explain a capitalist economy using all three categories. Again - thank you for an excellent post, and moving Peirce out of the seminar room into the real world. Edwina > On Apr 7, 2024, at 1:57 PM, Michael J.J. Tiffany > <michael.tiffany+pei...@gmail.com> wrote: > > John, List: > > I agree with John regarding the urgent relevance of Peirce to this century. > > I have been a subscriber to this list for 17 years (since I was 26). In that > time, among other things, I co-founded a billion dollar cybersecurity company > (HUMAN Security, also one of the TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2023). > Two personal observations: > > 1. Agapism has greater predictive power than the "Gospel of Greed" Peirce > railed against in "Evolutionary Love", his fifth article for the Open Court. > In evolutionary biology, I think this is substantially clearer now than in > Peirce's time, with the careful study of countless cases of group selection > > individual selection. > > However, Peirce's insight is still underappreciated in today's thinking about > socio-economic evolution. Wealth creation -- distinct from zero sum wealth > transfer -- comes from a kind of sustainable generosity. There are many > examples of successful wealth aggregators whose success could be predicted > with naive selection pressure heuristics like "survival of the fittest" or > even "greed is good." However, those heuristics cannot account for the > extraordinary wealth creation of the past 200 years nor the motivations of > the most successful creators and the massive amount of cooperation they > shepherded. Peirce's model isn't just nicer or more inspiring. It's a > literally more useful model for understanding and predicting reality, > especially complex emergent phenomena (the "worlds hidden in plain sight" as > the Santa Fe Institute once put it). > > 2. An understanding of Peirce's notion of abduction dramatically accelerates > understanding of the (surprising!) emergent functionality of large pretrained > transformer models like GPT-4. (BTW it is a CRAZY tragedy that there's > another, vastly less useful, meaning of "abduction" now, hence having to > write qualifiers like "Peirce's notion of...".) In fact, I don't see how you > can understand how this emergent behavior arises -- what we're calling the > reasoning capabilities of these models -- without an understanding of > abduction as a kind of activity that you could be better or worse at. > > > Warm regards, > > Michael J.J. Tiffany > Portsmouth, New Hampshire > > > On Sun, Apr 7, 2024 at 11:58 AM John F Sowa <s...@bestweb.net > <mailto:s...@bestweb.net>> wrote: >> Following is an offline note endorsing my note that endorses Jerry's note >> about the upcoming talk on Friday, which emphasizes the importance of >> Peirce's writings for our time (the 21st C). >> >> Basic point: Peirce was writing for the future. Those of us who value his >> contributions should emphasize his contributions to his future, which is our >> present. >> >> John >> >> >> Sent: 4/7/24 10:36 AM >> To: John Sowa <s...@bestweb.net <mailto:s...@bestweb.net>> >> Subject: FW: [PEIRCE-L] Zoom lecture on the CSP's role in philosophy of >> science (U Pitt) >> John, >> >> I harbor a suspicion, perhaps more like a fantasy, that had Peirce’s >> ‘pragmaticism’ carried the day against James & Dewey, logical and empirical >> positivism and the ‘linguistic turn’ wouldn’t have established the beachhead >> in philosophy of science that has pretty clearly, imho, led to the global >> existential crisis we’re facing today at the event horizon of mass >> extinction. Similarly, perhaps if Karl Popper had succeeded more widely in >> his opposition to the “Scientific World Conception” of the Vienna Circle in >> his day and since, the affinities of those two men’s philosophical views >> would have led to a radically different paradigmatic foundation of the >> sciences than the ‘value-free’ paradigm that apparently remains entrenched >> nearly a century later. I imagine Kuhn would agree we’re long overdue for a >> revolution. >> >> In this paragraph from his 2021 article on Peirce in the Stanford >> Encyclopedia of Philosophy <https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/>, >> Rober Burch seems to report some similar thoughts about Peirce’s perspective >> … >> >> An especially intriguing and curious twist in Peirce’s evolutionism is that >> in Peirce’s view evolution involves what he calls its “agapeism.” Peirce >> speaks of evolutionary love. According to Peirce, the most fundamental >> engine of the evolutionary process is not struggle, strife, greed, or >> competition. Rather it is nurturing love, in which an entity is prepared to >> sacrifice its own perfection for the sake of the wellbeing of its neighbor. >> This doctrine had a social significance for Peirce, who apparently had the >> intention of arguing against the morally repugnant but extremely popular >> socio-economic Darwinism of the late nineteenth century. The doctrine also >> had for Peirce a cosmic significance, which Peirce associated with the >> doctrine of the Gospel of John and with the mystical ideas of Swedenborg and >> Henry James. In Part IV of the third of Peirce’s six papers in Popular >> Science Monthly, entitled “The Doctrine of Chances,” Peirce even argued that >> simply being logical presupposes the ethics of self-sacrifice: “He who would >> not sacrifice his own soul to save the whole world, is, as it seems to me, >> illogical in all his inferences, collectively.” To social Darwinism, and to >> the related sort of thinking that constituted for Herbert Spencer and others >> a supposed justification for the more rapacious practices of unbridled >> capitalism, Peirce referred in disgust as “The Gospel of Greed.” >> >> All merely hypothetical or purely conjectural, of course. But your >> admonition to relate Peirce to our 21st century world nudged me into sharing >> the idea. >> >> From: peirce-l-requ...@list.iupui.edu >> <mailto:peirce-l-requ...@list.iupui.edu> <peirce-l-requ...@list.iupui.edu >> <mailto:peirce-l-requ...@list.iupui.edu>> On Behalf Of John F Sowa >> Sent: Saturday, April 6, 2024 5:53 PM >> To: Jerry LR Chandler <jerry_lr_chand...@icloud.com >> <mailto:jerry_lr_chand...@icloud.com>>; Peirce List <PEIRCE-L@list.iupui.edu >> <mailto:PEIRCE-L@list.iupui.edu>> >> Subject: RE: [PEIRCE-L] Zoom lecture on the CSP's role in philosophy of >> science (U Pitt) >> >> Jerry, >> >> Thanks for that note. The following sentence shows why we need to relate >> Peirce's writings to the latest and greatest work that is being done today: >> >> From the abstract: "C.S. Peirce, however, is not generally considered a >> canonical figure in the history of philosophy of science." >> >> I have attended a few APA conferences where I gave a talk in a Peirce >> session and attended other talks in more general sessions. And I have not >> heard anybody mention Peirce (except me in the discussions after a talk). >> >> The logicians are constantly talking about Frege, despite the fact that >> nobody else had ever used his notation for logic. But they don't mention >> Peirce, despite the fact that every logician uses his algebra of logic (with >> minor notational changes by Peano). >> >> In fact, the reason why Peano changed the notation was for ease of >> publication. Peirce used the Greek letters, sigma and pi, for the >> quantifiers, which were rarely available in those days. But any typesetter >> could easily turn letters upside down and backwards. So instead of >> mentioning Peirce, they give credit to Peano for the algebraic notation. >> >> It's essential for Peirce scholars to relate his writings to the big, wide, >> modern world. Susan Haack does that very well. Some others do that. And >> it's essential for Peirce scholars to do much, much more to relate Peirce's >> work to the hot topics of the 21st century. Peirce himself expected his >> writings to be hot issues for 400 years. We're almost halfway there, and we >> need to heat up the discussions. >> >> John >> >> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> >> From: "Jerry LR Chandler" <jerry_lr_chand...@icloud.com >> <mailto:jerry_lr_chand...@icloud.com>> >> Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Zoom lecture on the CSP's role in philosophy of science >> (U Pitt) >> >> FYI >> >> JLRC >> >> Friday, April 12th @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm EDT >> >> This talk will also be available live streamed on: Zoom at >> https://pitt.zoom.us/j/94576817686 <https://pitt.zoom.us/j/94576817686> >> Title: Peirce Disappears: C.S. Peirce and Early Logical Empiricism >> >> Abstract: Scholars of the history of philosophy of science read and hear a >> lot about Duhem, Mach, Poincaré, and the members of the Vienna Circle. C.S. >> Peirce, however, is not generally considered a canonical figure in the >> history of philosophy of science. But in the early years of the logical >> empiricist movement in the United States, Peirce received a warm reception >> from prominent representatives, proponents, and sympathizers of logical >> empiricism including Charles Morris, Ernst Nagel, Herbert Feigl, Phillip >> Frank, and W.V.O. Quine. This reception was short-lived though and Peirce >> gradually disappeared from the mainstream philosophy of science while >> logical empiricism turned into a formidable movement. >> In this talk, I begin by discussing examples of the early reception of >> Peirce’s philosophy in the works of Morris, Nagel (and his student Justus >> Buchler), Feigl, and Frank. I show the variety of topics (including logic, >> probability theory, theories of truth and meaning, and social dimensions of >> science) in which Peirce received a warm (though not uncritical) reception. >> We see that the engagements with his works are persistent from the late >> 1920s to the 1950s and get more refined over time. I then provide some >> explanations for the eventual marginalization of Peirce in mainstream >> philosophy of science. >> >> _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ >> ARISBE: THE PEIRCE GATEWAY is now at >> https://cspeirce.com <https://cspeirce.com/> and, just as well, at >> https://www.cspeirce.com <https://www.cspeirce.com/> . It'll take a while >> to repair / update all the links! >> ► 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 <mailto:peirce-L@list.iupui.edu> . >> ► To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message NOT to PEIRCE-L but to l...@list.iupui.edu >> <mailto: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. > _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ > ARISBE: THE PEIRCE GATEWAY is now at > https://cspeirce.com and, just as well, at > https://www.cspeirce.com . It'll take a while to repair / update all the > links! > ► 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.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ARISBE: THE PEIRCE GATEWAY is now at https://cspeirce.com and, just as well, at https://www.cspeirce.com . It'll take a while to repair / update all the links! ► 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.
