Jon, Lists,

I agree that starting with Cartesian dualism will give a bad interpretation of 
Peirce, but I am not sure what you mean by your first distinction.  Could you 
expand?

The Cartesian position is a consequence of what I called rationalism if it 
accepts material substance. Idealism is the result if it does not (what I take 
to be Russell’s position, though he also argued for what he called neutral 
monism, which is not technically idealistic in, e.g., the Berkeleyan sense). I 
am unclear if Peirce was a rationalist, but I suspect that his idealism stems 
from this. It would be a mistake to understand this more or less as Russell as 
a world of universals, which Peirce would reject as a form of nominalism 
(though Russell would shudder at this idea). Peirce’s metaphysics is definitely 
not a Cartesian world with material substance sliced off, which is pretty much 
Berkeleyan idealism. The latter effectively makes ideas particulars, and is 
nominalistic as a result.

John Collier
Professor Emeritus, UKZN
http://web.ncf.ca/collier

From: Jon Awbrey [mailto:jawb...@att.net]
Sent: Thursday, 19 November 2015 2:46 PM
To: John Collier
Cc: biosemiot...@lists.ut.ee; PEIRCE-L
Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Re: Terms, Propositions, Arguments

John, all,

It is necessary to distinguish non-psychological from anti-psychological and 
independence from exclusion.

It is impossible to make sense of Peirce's position if you start by assuming 
the Cartesian dualism that he rejected.

Regards,

Jon

http://inquiryintoinquiry.com

On Nov 19, 2015, at 2:23 AM, John Collier 
<colli...@ukzn.ac.za<mailto:colli...@ukzn.ac.za>> wrote:
Lists,

At the end of the 19th Century there was a reaction against the idea that logic 
was a human creation and depended on the mind. This view is called 
psychologism. The founders of modern logic, including in particular Frege and 
Peirce, were anti-psychologists who argued that logic is independent of human 
psychology. I won’t give the arguments here, since they are readily available 
(see, e.g., http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/psychologism/). Whether logic is 
independent of thought depends on what you take thought to be. An idealist like 
Peirce takes a very broad view of propositions (shared by Platonists like 
Russell, and many rationalists in general) to the effect that thoughts are out 
there in the world as well as in our heads. This view requires further argument 
from the arguments against psychologism. A weaker position is that propositions 
but not thoughts are out there in the world (early Wittgenstein is an example – 
a view I share, though I don’t share his view that true propositions = facts).

Personally I find that putting thoughts in the world independently of humans 
requires a degree of rationalism that I cannot accept: that forms are 
meaningful independent of their existence (this is where I disagree with Jerry, 
I think). In this case logic can apply independently of thought, just as can 
mathematics, to the world. In other words, the world can be both logical and 
mathematical. I go a bit further and argue that logic and mathematics depend on 
the nature of the world, and that we must discover them through hypothetical 
reasoning rather than a priori (for example whether continuity exists, the 
infinite exists and similar). This allows a version of non-psychologistic 
naturalism that is somewhat similar to what I take to be Mill’s position, 
though he is often interpreted as a psychologist. So I don’t see Jerry’s worry 
that there is a gap between the formal aspects of, say, information theory and 
its manifestation as making sense. It seems to me that this presupposes that 
the formal aspects can exist independently, involving either a rationalism or 
an idealism or both that I cannot accept, as I find it ontological otiose. This 
is my argument against Jerry’s objection. I also deviate from Peirce here, I 
think, and certainly from my philosophical hero, Bertrand Russell.

However my views may be, there is a clear antipsychologist position on logic 
that is associated with the greatest logicians, and I think it very hasty to 
adopt Stan’s classification of logic.

John Collier
Professor Emeritus, UKZN
http://web.ncf.ca/collier

From: Stanley N Salthe [mailto:ssal...@binghamton.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, 18 November 2015 10:34 PM
To: biosemiot...@lists.ut.ee<mailto:biosemiot...@lists.ut.ee>
Cc: Ed Dellian; PEIRCE-L; Sergey Petoukhov; Robert E. Ulanowicz; Auletta 
Gennaro; Hans-Ferdinand Angel; Rudiger Seitz
Subject: [biosemiotics:8949] Re: Terms, Propositions, Arguments

Sung, all --
Logic is a product of a human culture. The universe (as understood in 
cosmology) is a logical product of that human culture.
{everything {biology {primates {humans {culture {universe }}}}}}

STAN

On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 12:42 PM, Sungchul Ji 
<s...@rci.rutgers.edu<mailto:s...@rci.rutgers.edu>> wrote:
Ed,

Thanks for your response.
You wrote :

"Logic" is a product of the human brain only. "The Universe" is not a product 
of the human brain,        (111815-1)
and therefore it is not logical."

I can't quite agree with (111815-1).  Instead I would assert that

"Logic may be a product of the Universe as is the human brain. Hence it is not 
surprising                    (111815-2)
that that the logical reasoning of the human mind agrees with what happens in 
the Universe."

All the best.

Sung






On Wed, Nov 18, 2015 at 8:56 AM, Ed Dellian 
<ed.dell...@t-online.de<mailto:ed.dell...@t-online.de>> wrote:
Sung,

You say that the Universe is "by and large logical". This is not true. "Logic" 
is a product of the human brain only. "The Universe" is not a product of the 
human brain, and therefore it is not logical, and its language is not the human 
mathematical logic of algebra. The rational language of the Universe is 
Geometry (Plato, 400 BC, Galileo, 1623 AD). Geometry as the art of measuring 
refers to everything "which is really there" and therefore has its distinct 
measure. Mathematical logic, or the art of calculating, refers to "what could 
be there" (cf. my 2012 essay "The language of Nature is not Algebra", on my 
website www.neutonus-reformatus.com<http://www.neutonus-reformatus.com>, entry 
nr. 40, 201). Logic and algebra is an "anthropocentric" art rooted in the human 
brain only; geometry is "cosmocentric" and refers to the reality and truth of 
Nature (based on the reality and measurability of space and time)

Ed.

________________________________
Von: sji.confor...@gmail.com<mailto:sji.confor...@gmail.com> 
[mailto:sji.confor...@gmail.com<mailto:sji.confor...@gmail.com>] Im Auftrag von 
Sungchul Ji
Gesendet: Mittwoch, 18. November 2015 12:29
An: PEIRCE-L
Cc: biosemiotics; Sergey Petoukhov; Robert E. Ulanowicz; Ed Dellian; Auletta 
Gennaro; Hans-Ferdinand Angel; Rudiger Seitz
Betreff: Fwd: [PEIRCE-L] Terms, Propositions, Arguments
Hi,

A correction:

Please replace "nucleotides, A, T, G, and C for DNA and RNA" in (4) with 
"nucleotides, A, T, G, and C for DNA, and A,T, G and U for RNA".

Thanks.

Sung



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sungchul Ji <s...@rci.rutgers.edu<mailto:s...@rci.rutgers.edu>>
Date: Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 9:04 PM
Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Terms, Propositions, Arguments
To: PEIRCE-L <peirce-l@list.iupui.edu<mailto:peirce-l@list.iupui.edu>>
Cc: biosemiotics <biosemiot...@lists.ut.ee<mailto:biosemiot...@lists.ut.ee>>, 
Sergey Petoukhov <spetouk...@gmail.com<mailto:spetouk...@gmail.com>>, Ed 
Dellian <ed.dell...@t-online.de<mailto:ed.dell...@t-online.de>>, "Robert E. 
Ulanowicz" <u...@cbl.umces.edu<mailto:u...@cbl.umces.edu>>


(The table below may be distorted beyond easy recognition.)

Franklin, Gary R, lists,

In connection with writing my manuscript on the cell language theory to be 
published by Imperial College Press, I am toying with the ideas expressed in 
Table 1 below. If anyone has any suggestions or comments, I would appreciate 
hearing from you.

There are several points that need explanations:

(1) I coined three new words, 'cellese', 'humanese', 'cosmese', to facilitate 
discussions.  I am assuming that 'cosmese' is synonymous with what we call 
logic, since the Universe is by and large 'logical'.

(2)  I imported the concept of "double articulations" from linguistics to 
biology in 1997 [1-6].  (I feel funny to list so many of my own references here 
despite Franklin's recent criticism.  The only justification I have for doing 
so is to assure the members of these lists that most of the statements that I 
make on these posts are supported by my published research results, as is also 
the case for many of the discussants on these lists.)

(3)  When I applied the concept of "double articulation" to cell biology, I was 
logically led to invoke the concept of "third articulation" (see the second 
row, Table 1)  in order to account for some of the cellular metabolism and 
processes.  I then decided to export this concept back to humanese where 
"double articulation" originated, leading to the distinction between sentences 
and linguistic texts including simple syllogisms.  This extension seems 
reasonable because we can then say that

1) words denote  (first 6 of the 10 classes of the Pericean triadic signs that 
I listed in my previous post)

2) sentences decide or judge (Classes 7, 8 & 9 of Peircean signs)

3) texts argue (the 10th class, i.e, argument symbolic legisign).



__________________________________________________________

Table 1.  The common structures of the languages at three levels --
                'cellese', 'humanese' and 'cosmese' [7].'

__________________________________________________________


                       1st articulation     2nd articulation      '3rd 
articulation'
__________________________________________________________

'humanese'              words                    letters                    
sentences
                                    |                             |             
                    |
                                   V                            V               
                V
                             sentences                words                  
syllogisms/texts
___________________________________________________________

'cellese'           1-D biopolymers           monomers          3-D biopolymers
                                      |                             |           
                     |
                                     V                            V             
                  V
                        3-D biopolymers      1-D biopolymers     chemical waves 
[8]

____________________________________________________________

'cosmese'                 terms                          X                      
 propositions
(or logic ?)                    |                               |               
                  |
                                    V                              V            
                   V
                            propositions                  terms                 
    arguments
_____________________________________________________________


(4)  You will notice the appearance of x in the middle of the 4th row.  I was 
led to postulate this entity based solely on the symmetry consideration with 
respect to the other two rows: x must be there, and I am at  a loss what this 
may be.  Does anyone on these lists know if Peirce discussed something related 
to this ?  Can x be what Peirce called 9 groups of signs (i.e., qualisign, 
sinsign, legisign, icon, index, symbol, rheme, dicisign, and argument) ?  If 
so, these 9 groups of signs may be akin to the monomers in biology (i.e., 4 
nucleotides, A, T, G, and C for DNA and RNA, and 20 amino acids for proteins), 
and letters of the alphabets in human languages. This may justify Peirce's 
division of signs into 9 groups and 10 classes, which I referred to as 
"elementary signs" and "composite signs", respectively, in [biosemiotics:46], 
which elicited oppositions from Franklin in his recent post and Edwina in 2012.

(5)  If the above considerations are right in principle, we may conclude that 
language is one of those "simple concepts applicable every subject" that Peirce 
was talking about.  Another simple concept applicable to every subject may be 
"waves", since humanese is mediated by sound waves, cellese by electromagnetic, 
mechanical and chemical concentration waves, and cosmese by electromagnetic, 
gravitational and probability waves.
These conclusions are in good agreement with the Petoukhov hypothesis that 
organisms are akin to musical instruments [9, 10] and Pythagorian and Plato's 
idea of Musica universalis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Musica_universalis; I want to thank Jerry Chandler for bringing this idea to my 
attention recently).

All the best.

Sung


References:
   [1] Ji, S. (1997). Isomorphism between cell and human languages: molecular 
biological, bioinformatics and linguistic implications. BioSystems 44:17-39.
   [2] Ji, S. (1997). A cell-linguistic analysis of apoptosis, Comments on 
Toxicology 5(6):571-85.
   [3] Ji, S. (1999).  The cell as the smallest DNA-based molecular computer. 
BioSystem 52:123-133.
   [4] Ji, S. (1999).  The Linguistics of DNA: Words, Sentences, Grammar, 
Phonetics, and Semantics. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 870: 411-417.
   [5] Ji, S. (2001). Isomorphism between Cell and Human Languages: Micro- and  
Macrosemiotics, in Semiotics 2000: “Sebeok’s Century”, S. Simpkins, J. Deely,  
(eds.), Legas, Ottawa, pp. 357-374.
   [6]  Ji, S. (2002). Microsemiotics of DNA. Semiotica 138(1/4): 15-42.
   [7] Ji, S. (2012).  The Wave-Particle Complementarity in Physics, B iolgy 
and Philosophy. In: Molecular Theory of the Living Cell: Concepts, Molecular 
Mechanisms, and Biomedical Applications.  Springer, New York.  PDF retrievable 
from conformon.net<http://conformon.net> under Publications > Book Chapters.  
See Table 2.13 on pp. 44-45.
   [8] Ji, S. (2012).  The Isomorphism between Cell and Human Languages: The 
Cell Language Theory<http://www.conformon.net/?attachment_id=1098>. ibid. PDF 
retrievable from conformon.net<http://conformon.net> under Publications > Book 
Chapters.  See Table 6.3 on p.166.
   [9]    Petoukhov, S. V. (2015) Music and the Modeling Approach to Genetic 
Systems of Biological Resonances.  Extended Abstract, The 4th ISIS Summit, 
Vienna, Austria, 2015.  http://sciforum.net/conference/70/paper/2812
   [10]  Petoukhov, S. V. (2015)  The system-resonance approach in modeling 
genetic structures.  BioSystems (in press,   
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/aip/03032647).






On Tue, Nov 17, 2015 at 3:40 AM, Franklin Ransom 
<pragmaticist.lo...@gmail.com<mailto:pragmaticist.lo...@gmail.com>> wrote:
Gary F,

GF: In the paragraph at issue, Peirce is clearly defining two kinds of signs as 
parts of other signs: “If a sign, B, only signifies characters that are 
elements (or the whole) of the meaning of another sign, A, then B is said to be 
a predicate (or essential part) of A. If a sign, A, only denotes real objects 
that are a part or the whole of the objects denoted by another sign, B, then A 
is said to be a subject (or substantial part) of B.” Do you not agree that 
these are definitions of predicate and subject?

FR: No, I do agree that these are definitions of predicate and subject. But I 
also note there is an ambiguity in the way it is stated, that permits the 
possibility that a term may be such a sign that has a predicate or subject.

GF: Peirce then proceeds to define depth and breadth in terms of predicates and 
subjects:
“The totality of the predicates of a sign, and also the totality of the 
characters it signifies, are indifferently each called its logical depth. … The 
totality of the subjects, and also, indifferently, the totality of the real 
objects of a sign is called the logical breadth.” Now, when you say that 
“Peirce was deliberately including all signs, and not simply propositions”, are 
you claiming that all signs have depth and breadth? According to Peirce’s 
definition here, a sign can have depth only if it has predicates and signifies 
characters. Do all signs do that? Likewise, in order to have breadth, a sign 
must have subjects and real objects. Do all signs have those? If not, how can 
you claim that the referent of the term “a sign” in those definitions can be 
any sign at all? Peirce’s definitions specify that a sign that has depth and 
breadth (and thus can convey information) must have predicate(s) and 
subject(s). Does that apply to all kinds of sign?

FR: First of all, I would like to note that because the totality of the 
predicates of a sign is identified with the totality of characters it 
signifies, and is its logical depth, and precisely how a term's logical depth 
is determined is by the totality of characters it signifies, this supports the 
case I am making. Likewise in the case of the the totality of subjects.

I am not sure it is required that every sign have a predicate and a subject. He 
says IF a sign, B, only signifies characters that are elements of the meaning 
of another sign, A, then B is said to be a predicate (or essential part). This 
doesn't necessarily mean that every sign must have a predicate. Likewise in the 
case of the subject.

Now, having said that, let's consider the possibility, as you suggest, that 
there are signs that do not have real objects. This is different from saying 
that a sign has no subject. A subject is supposed to be a sign (A) that denotes 
the real objects the other sign (B) denotes. So let us separate those into two 
different points. I think it may be too much to argue that a sign has no real 
object, because this implies it has no dynamical object. Are you comfortable 
with asserting that there are signs with no dynamical object? I would like to 
hear about that idea, if you have something to say.

Going further along the same lines, let us in parallel fashion note that a 
predicate is a sign (B) that signifies the characters that the other sign (A) 
signifies. Do you claim that there can be a sign which signifies nothing? In 
order that a sign be a sign, it must signify something about its object. This 
signifying is typically characterized by Peirce as, well, characters that the 
sign attributes to the (dynamical) object.

I think that every sign must signify something about some object. Not only must 
it both signify something and be about an object, it must also have an 
interpretant. Any interpretant, being determined by the sign to be so 
determined to the object in the way the original sign is, must denote that very 
same object, and signify it in some way related to how the original sign 
signifies. That is, it must have, if not the whole, at least elements of the 
meaning of the original sign. And yes, this applies to all signs. So far as I 
can tell, this is simply tautology, given the definition of sign.

GF: I think you’re overlooking Peirce’s statement that signs fulfill that 
purpose by being joined to other signs.

FR: I don't think I overlooked that statement; in point of fact, that was why I 
mentioned in bold print in my last post that no term has information outside of 
the synthetic propositions in which it participates.

Also what he says in the Syllabus and elsewhere about how complex signs involve 
simpler signs, which offers a much less convoluted explanation of how all signs 
play their parts in approaching the ideal of the Absolute Truth.

FR: I'm not sure what the point is of referencing how complex signs involve 
simpler signs; and if you don't mind, would you please be so kind as to offer a 
page reference for me that makes the point?

In the “Nomenclature and Divisions of Triadic Relations” (1903) Peirce defines 
a “sign” as “a representamen of which some interpretant is a cognition of a 
mind.”

FR: I'm not sure what the point was of quoting the definition of a sign as "a 
representamen of which some interpretant is a cognition of a mind."

Then in 1909 he writes that:
“The mode of being of the composition of thought, which is always of the nature 
of the attribution of a predicate to a subject, is the living intelligence 
which is the creator of all intelligible reality, as well as of the knowledge 
of such reality. It is the entelechy, or perfection of being” (CP 6.341, 1909).
What kind of sign joins a predicate to a subject? Do we really want to say that 
all signs do that, or that “terms” do that?

FR: The kind of sign that joins a predicate to a subject is pretty clearly the 
proposition. I have no argument with that. But observe that the sign that is a 
predicate of another sign, does not require that it be attributed to that other 
sign in order to be its predicate, according to the passage that we are 
discussing; likewise for a subject. Moreover, just because a proposition is the 
kind of sign that attributes a predicate to a subject, that does not make it 
any less true that a term can have something predicated of it, or that it can 
have subjects of which it is predicated (and thus have subjects). A proposition 
simply makes explicit the process by which this happens.

I want to make sure to state that I do not think propositions and terms are the 
same thing. I have concerns about what he said in KS in comparison to 
statements made elsewhere regarding the logical quantities and information, and 
I am attempting to make sense of it all in a way that, well, makes sense. I 
have to admit some lasting concern about what he has had to say about signs and 
predicates and subjects. You have been arguing strenuously that by signs he 
means propositions, but I would very much prefer to believe it did not refer to 
propositions at all, because this would contradict what he said in 1893, and I 
found that statement highly suggestive. At the same time, after putting a lot 
of thought into this reply, I have to admit that I can't deny a proposition 
must denote and signify, and consequently must have predicate and subject in 
the sense in which they are discussed in the passage. In fact, it is hard to 
see how any sign could have no object or signify nothing about the object, in 
virtue of being a sign. I guess this just amounts to the conclusion that yes, 
Peirce meant to apply the statements to every sign, whatsoever.

-- Franklin

---------------------------------------------------

On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 10:42 AM, 
<g...@gnusystems.ca<mailto:g...@gnusystems.ca>> wrote:
Franklin, my responses inserted below.

Gary f.

From: Franklin Ransom 
[mailto:pragmaticist.lo...@gmail.com<mailto:pragmaticist.lo...@gmail.com>]
Sent: 13-Nov-15 15:02
To: peirce-l@list.iupui.edu<mailto:peirce-l@list.iupui.edu> 1 
<peirce-l@list.iupui.edu<mailto:peirce-l@list.iupui.edu>>
Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Terms, Propositions, Arguments

Gary F, list,

Seeing as how discussion has gotten far away from "Vol.2 of CP, on Induction," 
I feel it is best to change the subject, and thus the thread, of the 
discussion. Hopefully the subject is sufficiently vague.

I have re-read KS through. With respect to Peirce's use of the word "sign" 
instead of "proposition" in the paragraph at issue, I still think that Peirce 
was deliberately including all signs, and not simply propositions.
GF: In the paragraph at issue, Peirce is clearly defining two kinds of signs as 
parts of other signs: “If a sign, B, only signifies characters that are 
elements (or the whole) of the meaning of another sign, A, then B is said to be 
a predicate (or essential part) of A. If a sign, A, only denotes real objects 
that are a part or the whole of the objects denoted by another sign, B, then A 
is said to be a subject (or substantial part) of B.” Do you not agree that 
these are definitions of predicate and subject?

Peirce then proceeds to define depth and breadth in terms of predicates and 
subjects:
“The totality of the predicates of a sign, and also the totality of the 
characters it signifies, are indifferently each called its logical depth. … The 
totality of the subjects, and also, indifferently, the totality of the real 
objects of a sign is called the logical breadth.” Now, when you say that 
“Peirce was deliberately including all signs, and not simply propositions”, are 
you claiming that all signs have depth and breadth? According to Peirce’s 
definition here, a sign can have depth only if it has predicates and signifies 
characters. Do all signs do that? Likewise, in order to have breadth, a sign 
must have subjects and real objects. Do all signs have those? If not, how can 
you claim that the referent of the term “a sign” in those definitions can be 
any sign at all? Peirce’s definitions specify that a sign that has depth and 
breadth (and thus can convey information) must have predicate(s) and 
subject(s). Does that apply to all kinds of sign?

But I have a thought about what is going on in the text that may explain the 
way in which he is discussing signs, though I suppose it might be somewhat 
unorthodox. Consider that we have just been discussing cases where Peirce 
remarks that propositions and arguments may be regarded as terms, and 
alternatively that terms and propositions may be regarded as arguments. Perhaps 
in KS, what we have is Peirce suggesting that terms and arguments may be 
regarded as propositions.

In the case of arguments, Peirce makes the point explicit: "That a sign cannot 
be an argument without being a proposition is shown by attempting to form such 
an argument" (EP2, p.308).

In the case of terms, this requires a little argumentation. It is clear that 
terms have logical quantity. In particular, natural classes like "man" have 
informed logical quantity; or more simply, information. Although it is true 
that Peirce says "[b]ut 'man' is never used alone, and would have no meaning by 
itself" (ibid, p.309-310), it is also true that in ULCE, the information of a 
term is determined by the totality of synthetic propositions in which the term 
participates as either predicate or subject; its informed depth and breadth is 
due to the cases in which the term is not used alone, but with respect to other 
terms in propositions. In the case of being used as predicate, it increases in 
informed breadth; in the case of subject, it increases in informed depth. Note 
that when the term appears as a subject, the predicate of the proposition is 
predicated of the term, and that when the term appears as a predicate, it has 
the subject of the proposition as its subject.

Now if we consider the term as a proposition, this would simply amount to 
supposing its logical depth given as predicate and its logical breadth given as 
subject in a proposition. So we could say of man, "All men are 
such-and-such-and-such", and by this we would denote all real objects that are 
men and all the characters that man signifies. This is not a very practical 
thing to do, but it is theoretically possible. It also satisfies what Peirce 
says in the passage when he defines predicate and subject with respect to, not 
simply propositions, but signs in general.

That's the interpretation I'm suggesting, namely that terms can be regarded as 
propositions. There are also some other points that are relevant to the claim 
that Peirce means signs, and not simply propositions. Although Peirce does 
admit that it is the proposition which is the main subject of the scholium as a 
whole, the term "proposition" appears a couple of times before the paragraph in 
question. Moreover, Peirce also goes on to explain rhemas and arguments as well 
after the passage in question, and then comes to focus on the idea of the 
symbol, which applies to all three. And, as I have suggested, Peirce is showing 
how terms and arguments may be regarded as propositions, So while his 
discussion of signs is focused around the idea of proposition, what he says of 
propositions has consequences for our understanding of signs in general, and so 
for terms and arguments. Although "[w]hat we call a 'fact' is something having 
the structure of a proposition, but supposed to be an element of the very 
universe itself," it is also true that "[t]he purpose of every sign is to 
express 'fact,' and by being joined to other signs, to approach as nearly as 
possible to determining an interpretant which would be the perfect Truth, the 
absolute Truth, and as such...would be the very Universe" (ibid, p.304). So 
here we see that fact is focused on the idea of the proposition, but it has 
consequences for how we should understand what all signs are up to, what the 
purpose of every interpretant is, regardless of whether it is the interpretant 
of a proposition or of another type of sign.
GF: I think you’re overlooking Peirce’s statement that signs fulfill that 
purpose by being joined to other signs. Also what he says in the Syllabus and 
elsewhere about how complex signs involve simpler signs, which offers a much 
less convoluted explanation of how all signs play their parts in approaching 
the ideal of the Absolute Truth.

In the “Nomenclature and Divisions of Triadic Relations” (1903) Peirce defines 
a “sign” as “a representamen of which some interpretant is a cognition of a 
mind.” Then in 1909 he writes that:
“The mode of being of the composition of thought, which is always of the nature 
of the attribution of a predicate to a subject, is the living intelligence 
which is the creator of all intelligible reality, as well as of the knowledge 
of such reality. It is the entelechy, or perfection of being” (CP 6.341, 1909).
What kind of sign joins a predicate to a subject? Do we really want to say that 
all signs do that, or that “terms” do that?

Then, at the end of the text when Peirce revisits the idea of judgment, we find 
him saying the following: "The man is a symbol. Different men, so far as they 
can have any ideas in common, are the same symbol. Judgment is the 
determination of the man-symbol to have whatever interpretant the judged 
proposition has." (ibid, p.324) Now I would suppose that the judgment is a 
certain kind of proposition, but the man-symbol is not likely to be regarded as 
being a proposition, nor an argument. It is a term, but we see in this respect 
that it is like a proposition, because just as the judgment is a determination 
of the man-symbol to have whatever interpretant the judgment has, in turn 
"[a]ssertion is the determination of the man-symbol to determining the 
interpreter, so far as he is interpreter, in the same way" (ibid). That is, the 
man-symbol now acts like a proposition in communicating the interpretant of the 
judged proposition to the interpreter, though the man-symbol is not properly a 
proposition but a term; but despite normally being considered a term, in this 
case it expresses a fact, which is properly what a proposition does.

--Franklin



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--
Sungchul Ji, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Rutgers University
Piscataway, N.J. 08855
732-445-4701<tel:732-445-4701>

www.conformon.net<http://www.conformon.net>



--
Sungchul Ji, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Rutgers University
Piscataway, N.J. 08855
732-445-4701<tel:732-445-4701>

www.conformon.net<http://www.conformon.net>



--
Sungchul Ji, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy
Rutgers University
Piscataway, N.J. 08855
732-445-4701<tel:732-445-4701>

www.conformon.net<http://www.conformon.net>

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