List:
[The following abductive paragraph is from my response to Kirsti’s probing
questions. The complete post in response to Kirsti is still in draft stage,
but this paragraph is of wider interest and relates to the broader questions
about CSP texts that relate to the deep roles of identity and particularity in
his logics, often suggesting that they are logical constants.]
These two sentences relate empiricism, realism and logic from the perspective
of precedence and abductive inference.
>From decades of first hand experience, CSP understood how to conduct
>experiments, to evaluate the meaning of them and based both his philosophy of
>inquiry and logic upon these private experiences.
The tri-triads of (Qualisigns, Sinsigns, Legisigns,) (Icons, Indices, Symbols,)
(Rhema, Dicisigns and Arguments) can be viewed as a chemical-based rhetoric for
an evaluation of experimental antecedent-consequent relations among relative
terms expressed in consistent, complete, decidable and well-organized
propositions.
To expand on these two sentences that relate empiricism, realism and logic, I
add a few sentences to interrelate the some of the precepts and concepts
related to chemical / biological causality.
1. Empiricism: What happens, happens.
2. Facts and Temporality of Experimental Realism: The experimentalist proposes,
Mother Nature disposes.
3. Empirical Natural Inquiry as Antecedent-Consequence of Experimentation:
A. A meaningful question is asked in the antecedent conditions in the
design and implementation of the initial conditions of the experiment.
B. The consequences are the facts of the terminal conditions at the end
of experiment, Mother Nature’s meaningful answer to the questions asked in the
antecedent premises of the experiment.
C. The interpretation of Mother Nature’s answer is a personal choice of
the belief system of the observer.
Frederik Stjernfelt’s seeks to describe CSP logic in terms of “Natural
Propositions” as dicisigns, relegating the other 8 terms of the tri-triadicity
to secondary roles. Some of the eight terms play little, if any, role in
Frederik’s analysis of the logical texts of CSP as “Natural Propositions".
My analysis of the text relies on all nine of the terms CSP introduced. Of
course, 21 st Century scientific rhetoric would use different terms and frame
these propositions rather differently in terms of physical atomism (atomic
numbers).
A functional distinction between CSP’s tri-triadic terms and other foundational
views of logic is that the tri-triadic terms connote (or imply) causality when
the names replace abstract terms, that is, specific rhema are formed from the
experimental evidences. (3.421) CSP's hypothesis differs sharply from the
causal nexus proposed by J. S. Mill, 1843,
"… I shall give the name of Composition of Causes to the principle which is
exemplified in all cases in which the the joint effect of several causes is
identical with the sum of of their separate effects.” (see: Juarrero &Rubino,
2008, p.39)
The assertion of Composition of Causes by J S Mills directly contradicts the
chemical causality which experimentally shows that atoms beget molecules that
are NOT sums of all the attributes of atoms from which it is composed. A clear
example of this contradiction is the relation between the inanimate (nutrients)
and the animate (growth/development). (N.B., Mass is one attribute that is
mereologically summable over the parts of the whole.)
My interpretation of CSP’s texts has broad implications for the lack of
intimacy between CSP texts and the texts of Kant and Husserl and the Philosophy
of Phenomenology. If the tri-triadic percepts are taken as philosophical
premises, then realism is necessarily given precedence over phenomenology and
its barely visible foundations.
Further, this interpretation of the tri-triadicity of CSP provides deep insight
into CSP’s views of existential graphs as contrasted with chemical graph theory
and mathematical graph theory (3.421) for the following reasons. Chemical graph
theory requires that the index of a molecule bear an identity relation to both
qualisigns and legisigns as well as saturated and unsaturated valences.
Kempe’s theory of mathematical graphs takes a different approach to the concept
of indexes.
>From a historical viewpoint, CSP’s terminology in the 9 tri-triadic terms
>encapsulates the logical landscape of the chemical sciences as it was known in
>his day. In modern science, the percepts of perplex number system quantifies
>the bases for the empirical logic of chemistry in terms of the denotation of
>electrical particles of physical atoms. (see: Chandler, 2009, to compare and
>contrast the logics under considerations.)
Cheers
Jerry
Jerry LR Chandler, PhD.
Research Professor
Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study
George Mason University
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