Bill & All,
That definition of "objective" merges well with the definition
of "real" that Peirce derived from Scholastic sources, namely,
"the real is that which has properties". The full strength of
this definition is clear if we stress the sense of "proper"
in "properties", that which is proper to a thing, its own.
It is no coincidence that this very sense of "proper" is
conveyed by the German function word "eigen". In physics,
the operation of making a particular type of measurement
or observation is represented by an algebraic matrix, and
the possible results of that measurement or observation are
given by real numbers called the "eigenvalues" of that matrix.
Jon
William R. Everdell wrote:
Peirce's contemporary Frege defined "objective" as being perceivable
> by more than one observer as the same thing. I've always liked that.
-Bill Everdell
Vive la Republique!
St Ann's School, Brooklyn
On Sep 9, 2011, at 1:56 PM, Jon Awbrey <jawb...@att.net> wrote:
Sally & All,
Some of us are slower readers than others ...
To tell the truth, I haven't been having much time to do more than skim,
so let me just mention a few thoughts that come to mind while doing that.
I am constantly reminded of this favorite line from Peirce:
"No longer wondered what I would do in life but defined my object."
-- C.S. Peirce (1861), "My Life", (Chron. Ed. 1, p. 3)
The question of Objects, Objectives, and Objectivity is a persistent one.
The Latin-rooted English "object" springs from deeper roots in the Greek
"pragma".
It was a personal revelation to me on first looking into Liddell and Scott and
reading all the meanings and ramifications of that pragmatic semantic complex:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dpra%3Dgma
It is especially the senses of the word "object" that refer to aims and
purposes,
in other words, intentional objects and objects of intention, that we are likely
to miss if we don't remind ourselves of their pertinence to pragmatic thinking.
Regards,
Jon
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