Clark: Agreed - Firstness has a character while Nothing does not. That's also how I read Peirce's outline of the three categories - that they operate within 'character' or boundaries, which means that none of the categories can be primordial or 'pre-matter'.
Mind, which in my reading of Peirce, operates within all three modal categories, emerges with the emergence of the material universe. He notes this in his outline of the emergence of matter in 1.412, and one can also read, that he considers "a state of things in which the three universes were completely nil. Consequently, whether in time or not, the three universes must actually be absolutely necessary results of a state of utter nothingness" 6.490. The three universes operate within the three modal categories and therefore, none of them are prior to matter, for 'the universe of mind..coincides with the universe of matter' [6.501] by which I understand that the modal categories are correlated with each other and none is primordial. After all, 'habit-taking is intimately connected with nutrition' 6.283, i.e., Thirdness is correlated with matter. As for WHAT the term of god means, Peirce says 'the analogue of a mind' [6.502] and since he has already considered that Mind and Matter are correlated - the one cannot exist without the other [Aristotle]. Yes, I agree that original sources are vital - and that they disagree within texts and with each other. Would you say that agapasm is a 'drive towards unity' or is it a 'feeling' of attraction to Otherness, and an action of the development of some, just some, commonalities. That is, agapasm requires diversity of matter, for 'love' exists only within an attraction to the Not-Self and the 'power of sympathy' towards this otherness 6.307. Edwina ----- Original Message ----- From: Clark Goble To: Peirce-L Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2017 2:40 PM Subject: Re: [PEIRCE-L] nominalism On Jan 24, 2017, at 12:11 PM, Edwina Taborsky <tabor...@primus.ca> wrote: This nothing is limitless possibilities BUT, after those first two 'flashes' outlined by Peirce, these flashes which introduce particular matter also introduce Thirdness or habits of formation, and these then start to limit and constrain the possibilities. So, I don't consider that the 'Nothing' is like Firstness, since my reading of Peirce posits that Firstness operates as a mode of organization of matter...and this requires matter to exist! That is, my reading of Peirce is that the three modal categories only develop when matter develops. So, before there was matter, this 'Nothing' is not Firstness. As Peirce outlines it - it is 'nothing'. Firstness is a powerful mode of organization of matter, rejecting closure, limits, borders. And certainly, since matter at this pretemporal phase hasn't developed any laws of modal organization, it doesn't yet function within Thirdness. As I understand it the main difference between nothing (or the zeroth category) and firstness is just how bounded it is. Firstness has a character whereas Nothing does not. Again Peirce is here following several types of neoPlatonism from the latter period of late antiquity that divide the One into two types of Oneness, one more primordial. It’s worth reading the SEP here although it doesn’t get into the nuances of differing schools of neoPlatonism. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/neoplatonism/#One You’ll note that the neoPlatonic notion of everything having an inner and an outer aspect is also part of Peirce’s thought. Even Peirce’s agapism is pretty much the neoPlatonism of Iamblichus where love is the drive towards unity. Within the One (unthinking limit) are two aspects — an inner and an outer. The One and the Many. (This is where he and a few other prominent neoPlatonists split with other schools) Unformed chaotic matter is the ultimate unlimited which is the One in its inner form. Limit is the other principle. These then mix with each other in weird ways (this neoPlatonism was primarily religious rather than straightforwardly philosophical) allowing the emanation of the Forms (firstness for Peirce) and then to the World Soul which is roughly the neoPlatonic idea of thirdness. I don’t recall if Peirce read Iamblichus (although I assume he did) although I know he read Proclus who was influenced by both Iamblichus and Plotinus. Again this to me is where Peirce is at his most controversial. But when reading these passages about limit, difference, and chaos of pure potency it’s worth reading the original sources Peirce is likely drawing upon. One should also note that the sources themselves didn’t always agree with each other in the details. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------- PEIRCE-L subscribers: Click on "Reply List" or "Reply All" to REPLY ON PEIRCE-L to this message. PEIRCE-L posts should go to peirce-L@list.iupui.edu . To UNSUBSCRIBE, send a message not to PEIRCE-L but to l...@list.iupui.edu with the line "UNSubscribe PEIRCE-L" in the BODY of the message. More at http://www.cspeirce.com/peirce-l/peirce-l.htm .
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