Jeff, List: Peirce identifies the difference in his first two sentences--"God" is "*the *definable proper name," while all the other capitalized words are "used, not as vernacular, but as terms defined" within the article itself. As we discussed on the List a month ago, a proper name is a rhematic *indexical *legisign that "denotes a single individual well known to exist by the utterer and interpreter" (EP 2:307, c. 1901). By contrast, a term is a rhematic *symbol *that is "connected with its Object by an association of general ideas" (CP 2.261, EP 2:295, 1903). Hence, "God" as a proper name, although unique by virtue of being definable, *cannot *be synonymous with "Mind" as a general term, even if the latter is assigned a peculiar definition.
Regards, Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt / twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt On Tue, Sep 17, 2024 at 8:15 PM Jeffrey Brian Downard < [email protected]> wrote: > Hi Jon S, List, > > > > For the sake of interpreting what Peirce is doing in the first section of > “A Neglected Argument”, what types of definitions do you take him to be > providing? For example, is Peirce providing nominal (i.e., verbal) > definitions or real definitions? > > > > He puts the following words into quotes with a capital first letter: > “God”, “Idea”, “Real”, “Experience”, “Argument”, “Argumentation”. Do these > words require different kinds of definitions, or do they all admit of the > same type? > > > > For my part, I think Peirce is explicitly pointing out that the words have > different functions. As such, they appear to need different types of > definitions. If that is right, then what is the difference between giving > an adequate definition of the word “God” and giving an adequate definition > of “Real” or “Argument”? > > > > --Jeff > >
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