List: When Peirce asserts that the universe is *one *immense sign, "a vast representamen," he goes on to describe it as also encompassing *many *signs--"Now every symbol must have, organically attached to it, its Indices of Reactions and its Icons of Qualities" (CP 5.119, EP 2:193-194, 1903). In other words, every symbol *involves *indices and icons; and likewise, every argument *involves *propositions and names. However, he makes it clear elsewhere that a symbol cannot be *built up* from icons and indices, and an argument cannot be *built up* from names and propositions--the whole is ontologically prior to its parts, which are indefinite until deliberately marked off, consistent with his late topical conception of a true continuum. I invite anyone interested in the details to read my paper on that subject (https://philpapers.org/archive/SCHPTC-2.pdf).
The notion that the entire universe is a sign whose dynamical object is external to it *does not* entail that the universe is finite; after all, Peirce maintains *both *that God is outside time *and *that time is infinite, and I see no reason why it could not likewise be the case *both *that God is outside space *and *that space is infinite. To illustrate this, I have provided the following diagram previously--his cosmology is *hyperbolic*, such that the universe (3rd) is constantly proceeding from an initial state in the infinite past (1st) toward a *different *final state in the infinite future (2nd). On the projective plane, the circle represents time and the horizontal line at infinity represents the Absolute, which is always at the same temporal (or spatial) interval from any assignable date (or place)--both infinitely distant (transcendent) and immediately present (eternal and omnipresent). This is perhaps paradoxical, but not self-contradictory. [image: image.png] Peirce repeatedly states that the dynamical *object *of any sign is external to it, but as far as I know, he never says this about its dynamical *interpretant*. In fact, according to him, the interpretant of any *argument *is its conclusion, and the universe is still "working out its conclusions in living realities" (CP 5.119, EP 2:193)--every *actual *event is a dynamical interpretant of the entire universe *prior *to the moment when it occurs; again, "The creation of the universe ... is going on today and never will be done" (CP 1.615, EP 2:255, 1903). On the other hand, the *final *interpretant of any sign is its *ideal *outcome, which need not ever *actually *be achieved. That is why I suggest not only that God the Creator is the dynamical object of the universe as a sign, but also that God completely revealed is its final interpretant. CSP: The starting-point of the universe, God the Creator, is the Absolute 1st; the terminus of the universe, God completely revealed, is the Absolute 2nd; every state of the universe at a measurable point of time is the 3rd. (CP 1.362, EP 1:251, 1887-8) As the subtitle of my "Semiosic Synechism" paper indicates, and as I acknowledge at the end of its preface, what I have spelled out there (and touched on here) is an ostensibly *Peircean* argumentation, not one that Peirce *himself *ever explicitly presents. Each summary statement is (mostly) in *my own* words as a *proposed *interpretation of his texts (and the world) for consideration, along with the accompanying quotations and citations. Hence, readers can decide for themselves whether my case is adequately supported by those texts, as well as whether they find it plausible in accordance with their understanding of the world. 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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