Jon, List,
There is one matter in your paper which is problematic for me. Perhaps it
could be thought of as what I see to be the challenge of reconciling the
meaning of the Blackboard metaphor ('before' time came into being) and an
actual semiosic universe (for prime example, *our* Universe in
existent time).
I have tended to think that when Peirce speaks of the Universe as a Sign,
that he is speaking of *this Existential Universe* with its own Objects,
Signs, and Interpretants, not an Object outside or beyond that universe,
that is, separate from that semiotic system. But you seem to be arguing
that God is the Object of that unique Sign (which is the Universe taken as
a whole) in that *other* Platonic, and so, ideal world before existential
time, before existence itself was.
It seems to me that if you are arguing that God both stands outside of the
putative created universe and yet is its Object -- that is, that God is
*both* the Scribe writing on the Blackboard whereas certain Platonic Ideas
are *selected* by God (out of an* infinite number of possible Platonic
Ideas that might form a Universe*) *and *the Object of this Universe.
I don't see the Blackboard metaphor as representing either a semeiotic
system (in the Peircean sense, so no Object 'there' whatsoever) nor a
'structural' trichotomy of categories (whether or not the categories are
considered Platonic ideas themselves). That is to say that semiosis and
trichotomic structure (Object -> Sign -> Interpretant) *will* evolve at the
earliest at the beginning of 'existential' time. In a word, how do you see
God as acting as the Object within our a semiosic Universe while standing
outside that semiotic system (cf. the Blackboard metaphor), that of the
created world?
Best,
Gary R
[Note: I confess that it is clearly impossible for me to refrain from
discussing religious and cosmological metaphysics with you on the List, so
I'll stop trying.]
On Sun, Sep 1, 2024 at 2:01 PM Jon Alan Schmidt <[email protected]>
wrote:
> List:
>
> The subject line is the title of a paper that I initially prepared more
> than a year ago, which I have been revising and augmenting ever since. Its
> format is apparently unsuitable for a journal, so I have uploaded it to
> PhilArchive as an unpublished work (
> https://philpapers.org/archive/SCHSSA-42.pdf). Here is the abstract.
>
> Although he is best known as the founder of pragmatism, the name that
> Charles Sanders Peirce prefers to use for his comprehensive system of
> thought is "synechism" because the principle of continuity is its central
> thesis. This paper arranges and summarizes numerous quotations and
> citations from his voluminous writings to formalize and explicate his
> distinctive mathematical conceptions of hyperbolic and topical continuity,
> both of which are derived from the direct observation of time as their
> paradigmatic manifestation, and then apply them in normative science and
> metaphysics, especially logic as semeiotic and cosmology. The resulting
> conclusion is that the intelligibility of the universe is plausibly
> explained by conceiving it as one immense sign, a vast inferential process:
> a semiosic continuum whose connected constituent signs are indefinite until
> deliberately marked off, with God the Creator as its overall dynamical
> object in the infinite past and God completely revealed as its overall
> final interpretant in the infinite future.
>
>
> Attached is an outline that includes only my summary statements, each of
> which is supported by multiple Peirce quotations in the paper itself, where
> I also provide a methodological preface and extensive commentary in the
> footnotes. I might eventually try to rearrange all the material into
> something more conventional, so any substantive feedback would be
> appreciated.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA
> Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian
> www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt / twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt
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