Jeff, Jon, List,

In his 1885 Algebra of Logic, Peirce presented the modern versions of both 
first-order and second-order predicate logic.  The only difference between his 
notation and the modern versions is the choice of symbols.   Since Peano wanted 
to make his logic publishable by ordinary type setters, he had to avoid 
Peirce's Greek letters and subscripts.  Therefore, he invented the practice of 
turning letters upside-down or backwards, which type setters could do very 
easily.

For every version of first-order logic, there is a fixed domain D1 of entities 
in the domain of quantification.  Those entities could be anything of any kind 
-- that includes abstractions, fictions, imaginary beasts, and even 
hypothetical or possible worlds.   For second order logic, the domain D2 
consists of all possible functions and/or predicates that range over entities 
in D1.

Second order logic is the only kind of higher order logic that anybody uses for 
any practical applications in any version of science, engineering, or computer 
systems.  When they use the term HOL, they actually mean some kind of second 
order logic, which may be the one described above or something with a different 
way of specifying D2.

The first (and most widely cited or defined) version of higher order logic that 
goes beyond second was developed by Whitehead and Russell (1910).  It goes 
beyond second order logic by introducing domains D3, D4,..., which are so huge 
that nobody has ever found a use for them in any practical application.

Given D1 and D2 as above, W & R specified D3 as the set of all possible 
functions or predicates that may be defined over the union of D1 and D2.  Then 
D4 is defined over the union of D1, D2, D3.  And so on.  Logicians (usually 
graduate students who need to find a thesis topic) publish papers about such 
things in the Journal of Symbolic Logic.  And the only people who read them are 
graduate students who need to find a thesis topic.

Peirce never went beyond second order logic.  But any statement in any language 
or logic about any language or logic is metalanguage.  Since that word was 
coined over 20 years after Peirce, he never used it.   But there are many uses 
of metalanguage in Peirce's publications and MSS.  But he never chose or coined 
a word that would relate all the instances.

In the example that Jon copied below, "the line of identity denoting the ens 
rationis", Peirce used the term 'ens rationis' for that example of 
metalanguage.  But he described other examples with other words.

In the passage below by Jay Zeman,  "a different kind of line of identity, one 
which expresses the identity of spots rather than of individuals. This is an 
intriguing move, since it strongly suggests at least the second order predicate 
calculus, with spots now acquiring quantifications. Peirce did very little with 
this idea, so far as I am able to determine",   Jay mistakenly used the term 
"second order PC". There is no quantified variable for some kind of logic.  It 
is just another example of metalanguage that makes an assertion about the EG.

There is much more to say about metalanguage, which I'll discuss in a separate 
reply to Jon.  But these examples are a small fraction of the many instances of 
metalanguage throughout Peirce's publications and MSS. Once you start looking 
for them, you'll find them throughout his writings.  Unfortunately, Peirce had 
no standard terminology for talking about them.

I hate to say it, but this is one time when I wish Peirce had found a Greek 
word for it.

John

----------------------------------------
From: "Jon Alan Schmidt" <jonalanschm...@gmail.com>

Jeff, List:

Indeed, as Don Roberts summarizes, "The Gamma part of EG corresponds, roughly, 
to second (and higher) order functional calculi, and to modal logic. ... By 
means of this new section of EG Peirce wanted to take account of abstractions, 
including qualities and relations and graphs themselves as subjects to be 
reasoned about" 
(https://www.felsemiotica.com/descargas/Roberts-Don-D.-The-Existential-Graphs-of-Charles-S.-Peirce.pdf,
 1973, p. 64). Likewise, according to Ahti-Veikko Pietarinen, "In the Gamma 
part Peirce proposes a bouquet of logics beyond the extensional, propositional 
and first-order systems. Those concern systems of modal logics, second-order 
(higher-order) logics, abstractions, and logic of multitudes and collections, 
among others" (LF 2/1:28). Jay Zeman says a bit more about Gamma EGs for 
second-order logic in his dissertation.

JZ: There is also another suggestion, in 4.470, which is interesting but to 
which Peirce devotes very little time. Here he shows us a different kind of 
line of identity, one which expresses the identity of spots rather than of 
individuals. This is an intriguing move, since it strongly suggests at least 
the second order predicate calculus, with spots now acquiring quantifications. 
Peirce did very little with this idea, so far as I am able to determine, but it 
seems to me that there would not be too much of a problem in working it into a 
graphical system which would stand to the higher order calculi as beta stands 
to the first-order calculus. The continuity interpretation of the "spot line of 
identity" is fairly clear; it maps the continuity of a property or a relation. 
The redness of an apple is the same, in a sense, as the redness of my face if I 
am wrong; the continuity of the special line of identity introduced in 4.470 
represents graphically this sameness. This sameness or continuity is not the 
same as the identity of individuals; although its representation is scribed 
upon the beta sheet of assertion, its "second intentional" nature seems to 
cause Peirce to classify it with the gamma signs. 
(https://isidore.co/calibre/get/pdf/4481, 1964, pp. 31-32)

The CP reference here is to the paragraph right before the one where Peirce 
suggests the notation of a dotted oval and dotted line to assert a proposition 
about a proposition (CP 4.471, 1903), similar to the first EG on RLT 151 
(1898), as John and I discussed recently 
(https://list.iupui.edu/sympa/arc/peirce-l/2024-02/msg00141.html). Here is what 
Peirce says (and scribes) in that text; the image is from LF 2/1:165, with 
Peirce's handiwork on the right and Pietarinen's reproduction on the left.

CSP: Convention No. 13. The letters ρ0, ρ1, ρ2, ρ3, etc. each with a number of 
hooks greater by one than the subscript number, may be taken as rhemata 
signifying that the individuals joined to the hooks, other than the one 
vertically above the ρ taken in their order clockwise are capable of being 
asserted of the rhema indicated by the line of identity joined vertically to 
the ρ.
Thus, Fig. 57 expresses that there is a relation in which every man stands to 
some woman to whom no other man stands in the same relation; that is, there is 
a woman corresponding to every man or, in other words, there are at least as 
many women as men. The dotted lines between which, in Fig. 57, the line of 
identity denoting the ens rationis is placed, are by no means necessary.
[image.png]

On the other hand, as I keep pointing out, Peirce's only stated purpose for 
needing to add a new Delta part was "in order to deal with modals" (R L376, 
1911 Dec 6), so I doubt that it would have had anything to do with higher-order 
logics. John Sowa seems to be convinced that Peirce had in mind a more 
generalized situation/context logic using metalanguage, but so far, I see no 
evidence for this in the extant 19 pages of that letter to Risteen. Pietarinen 
speculates, "Perhaps he planned the Delta part on quantificational multi-modal 
logics as can be discerned in his theory of tinctured graphs that was fledgling 
since 1905" (LF 1:21), but that also seems unlikely to me since Peirce 
ultimately describes the tinctures as "nonsensical" (R 477, 1913 Nov 8).

As far as I know, the only new notation that Peirce ever proposes for 
representing modal propositions with EGs after abandoning broken cuts (1903) 
and tinctures (1906) is the one in his Logic Notebook that I have been 
advocating (R 339:[340r], 1909 Jan 7). Echoing Zeman's remark in the quotation 
above, the sameness or continuity of a possible state of things (PST) as 
represented by a heavy line of compossibility (LoC) in my candidate for Delta 
EGs is not the same as the identity of individuals as represented by a heavy 
line of identity in Beta EGs.

Regards,

Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA
Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian
www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt / twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt

On Fri, Mar 8, 2024 at 5:11 PM Jeffrey Brian Downard <peirce-l@list.iupui.edu> 
wrote:

Hello John, Jon, List,

Peirce examines both first and second intentional logics. The distinction 
appears to be similar, in some respects, to the contemporary distinction 
between first and second order logics. Here, for instance, is an SEP entry on 
higher order logics:   
https://seop.illc.uva.nl/entries/logic-higher-order/#HighOrdeLogiVisVisTypeTheo

Does Peirce’s explorations in the Gamma system of the EG, and his contemplation 
of a possible Delta system, bear some similarities to contemporary discussions 
of higher order logics, such as third order, or fourth order, etc.?

--Jeff D
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