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On 8/18/2014 3:12 PM, Clark Goble wrote:
Just to add to that last post, it’s also worth considering in terms of
causation and Aristotle’s taxonomy Peirce’s own conception of
inside/outside of the sign. Typically Peirce is interpreted to
consider habit formation as something that occurs within the sign.
This “within” is often seen as the psychic aspect whereas externally
it’s considered chance. (Bringing in some of Perice’s metaphysics now)
This gets at the interesting ontology of creation Peirce gives in 1891
that I’d quoted here a few weeks ago.
in the beginning -- infinitely remote -- there was a chaos
of unpersonalized Feeling, which being without connection or
regularity would properly be without existence. This Feeling,
sporting here and there in pure arbitrariness, would have started
the germ of a generalizing tendency. Its other sportings would be
evanescent, but this would have a growing virtue. Thus, the
tendency to habit would be started; and from this, with the other
principles of evolution, all the regularities of the universe
would be evolved. At any time, however, an element of pure chance
survives and will remain until the world becomes anabsolutely
perfect, rational, and symmetrical system, in which mind is at
last crystallized in the infinitely distant future. (CP 6.33)
Again I think some parallels to neoPlatonism of late antiquity,
especially Plotinus, are relevant here for thinking through how Peirce
regards Aristotle. But again, I also recognize that Peirce’s ontology
is extremely controversial. Many who love Peirce still balk at much of
his metaphysics. While I think Peirce’s thought tends to hinge all
together, one can probably separate his notion of signs without
adopting his metaphysics of signs, mind, and matter.
I confess that it’s an implication of Peirce’s thought it seems to me
that the universe is losing mind as it becomes more regular. Which
seems an odd thing to have in his metaphysics. Peirce often refers to
it as crystallization of mind.
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