[PEIRCE-L] Re: Peirce's categories

[Jon Awbrey]

Jeff, Kobus, List,

Just from my experience, the best first approach to questions
of firstness, secondness, thirdness, ..., is to regard k-ness
as the property that all k-adic relations share in common.
There is more to say once this first point is appreciated
but it is critical to begin from this understanding.

It is best to view k-adic relations as whole sets of k-tuples
rather than fixating on single k-tuples at a time since all
the most relevant properties of relations are "holistic"
properties of whole sets or whole systems that are not
reducible to properties of their individual elements.

The fact that a k-adic relation and its converses, numbering k!
(k factorial) in all, each contains what is essentially the same
information, means that fixating on a particular ordering will tend
to distract us with inessential features of a particular presentation
rather than highlighting the essential properties of the given relation.

Peirce demonstrates in several places that he
appreciates the significance of these facts.

Just my k bits,

Jon

On 10/28/2015 8:01 AM, Jeffrey Brian Downard wrote:

Hello Kobus,

I happen to think that is a very good question, and one that is not adequately 
explained in the secondary literature.  Having spent some time digging through 
Peirce's works for clearer answers, I think the answers can be found in the 
texts--but I sure wish Peirce had made things clearer himself.  One thing we 
need, I think, is a clear explanation of how the key ideas that are being 
worked out in the phenomenological account of the formal categories are being 
developed and refined in a diagrammatical manner in the graphical systems of 
logic.  That isn't much of a response, but I look forward to seeing what others 
have to say.

If you are interested in seeing a bit more of an answer, I have a short paper 
that was presented at the Congress last summer and would be happy to share it 
with you. Bill McCurdy has also worked on this problem, and he has come to 
similar kinds of conclusions about how we should picture the connections that 
are being formed between un-bonded monadic, dyadic and triadic relations.

--Jeff

Jeff Downard
Associate Professor
Department of Philosophy
NAU
(o) 523-8354
________________________________________
From: Kobus Marais [jmar...@ufs.ac.za]
Sent: Wednesday, October 28, 2015 2:15 AM
To: biosemiot...@lists.ut.ee
Subject: [biosemiotics:8913] Peirce's categories

Dear List
I hope that you will have patience with what may be a very ignorant question. 
In CP8.328, Perice defines thirdness as follows:
Thirdness is the mode of being of that which is such as it is, in bringing a 
second and third into relation to each other.

Now, I would have thought that thirdness brings a first and a second into 
relation to each other. Why would Peirce say that thirdness brings a second and 
a third into relation to each other? In which sense could thirdness bring a 
second into relation with itself? Or what am I missing here?

Thanks.
K

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