Yes, the quote you paraphrase is from Chapter 4 of A Guess at the Riddle, W6:187. “The work of the poet or novelist is not so utterly different from that of the scientific man…” It appears in the paragraph on this page where Peirce addresses the realistic hypostatization of relations. He calls for the intelligent use of hypostatization, presumably by scientists as well as artists.
Iris Iris Smith Fischer Professor Department of English University of Kansas Lawrence, KS 66045 From: Michael Shapiro <poo...@earthlink.net<mailto:poo...@earthlink.net>> Reply-To: Michael Shapiro <poo...@earthlink.net<mailto:poo...@earthlink.net>> Date: Wednesday, December 3, 2014 at 10:42 AM To: "Stephen C. Rose" <stever...@gmail.com<mailto:stever...@gmail.com>>, CSP <PEIRCE-L@list.iupui.edu<mailto:PEIRCE-L@list.iupui.edu>> Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Triadic Philosophy - Sorting Us Out Stephen, List: Peirce says somewhere else that the poet and the physicist have much in common. This quote seems to sever those who create art from those who strive to penetrate the cosmos. But that is a fundamental misunderstanding of what art is (including music and poetry), and what what might be called artistic consciousness is. Peirce is never very penetrating when talking about art and poetry (just as he is seriously deficient when it comes to ethics). -----Original Message----- From: "Stephen C. Rose" Sent: Dec 3, 2014 10:07 AM To: Peirce List Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Triadic Philosophy - Sorting Us Out Thus Peirce: If we endeavor to form our conceptions upon history and life, we remark three classes of men. The first consists of those for whom the chief thing is the qualities of feelings. These men create art. The second consists of the practical men, who carry on the business of the world. They respect nothing but power, and respect power only so far as it [is] exercized. The third class consists of men to whom nothing seems great but reason. If force interests them, it is not in its exertion, but in that it has a reason and a law. For men of the first class, nature is a picture; for men of the second class, it is an opportunity; for men of the third class, it is a cosmos, so admirable, that to penetrate to its ways seems to them the only thing that makes life worth living. These are the men whom we see possessed by a passion to learn, just as other men have a passion to teach and to disseminate their influence. If they do not give themselves over completely to their passion to learn, it is because they exercise self-control. Those are the natural scientific men; and they are the only men that have any real success in scientific research. Peirce: CP 1.44 Cross-Ref:†† END QUOTE It seems to me that Brent explicitly and Peirce implicitly does suggest that an icon is first, an index second and a symbol third. It also seems to me that there is no area of Peirce that remains as much subject to subjectivity as discussion around the many permutations of 1, 2 and 3. Triadic Philosophy sees Signs as what initiates thought, what gets translated into something explicit in the mind. Firsts. Indices are a second step - a challenging set of explicit barriers or modifiers or protections. Seconds. Symbols are expressions and actions on the way to becoming reality (the fruits by which we are known). Thirds. Since Triadic Philosophy at this point is merely my musings, not the subject of serious interest or discussion, it might be said to be ephemeral But it grows nonetheless. At the moment it is concerned to wrest from Aristotle his odd grip on ethics which he persists in presenting as a list of virtues, to the detriment of the measurability of actions and expressions, among other things. Books http://buff.ly/15GfdqU Art: http://buff.ly/1wXAxbl Gifts: http://buff.ly/1wXADj3
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