Stephen R., List:

I agree with you in the sense that nothing Peirce authored--whether
published or (especially) in handwritten manuscripts--is properly
characterized as "complete."

The Harvard website for the Peirce Papers has a link to an interesting 1997
book chapter by Mary Keeler and Christian Kloesel, "Communication, Semiotic
Continuity, and the Margins of the Peircean Text" (
http://conceptualgraphs.org/revelator/web/papers/keelermargins1997.pdf).
They go so far as to say that for Peirce, "the usual distinction between
draft versions of a paper and the final version (if there is one) is all
but useless ... he would not have called a single one of his writings
'finished,' 'definitive,' or 'final.'"  That is obviously problematic for
anyone like me who has a strong "regularizing" tendency, as Gary F. has
helpfully (and accurately) described it.

They also include a quote from Peirce's Carnegie Institution application
with which I strongly identify--"What has chiefly prevented my publishing
much has been, first, that my desire to teach has not been so strong as my
desire to learn ..."  *Writing* was an integral aspect of Peirce's *thinking
*and *learning *process, as it is of mine; communicating ideas to others
was a secondary objective.  After all ...

CSP:  A psychologist cuts out a lobe of my brain ... and then, when I find
I cannot express myself, he says, "You see your faculty of language was
localized in that lobe." No doubt it was; and so, if he had filched my
inkstand, I should not have been able to continue my discussion until I had
got another. Yea, the very thoughts would not come to me. So my faculty of
discussion is equally localized in my inkstand. It is localization in a
sense in which a thing may be in two places at once. On the theory that the
distinction between psychical and physical phenomena is the distinction
between final and efficient causation, it is plain enough that the inkstand
and the brain-lobe have the same general relation to the functions of the
mind. (CP 7.366; 1902)


Likewise the computer keyboard, in my case; and of course, a Sign is
precisely the kind of thing that "may be in two places at once," as two
different Instances.

Regards,

Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA
Professional Engineer, Amateur Philosopher, Lutheran Layman
www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt

On Mon, Mar 25, 2019 at 11:36 AM Stephen Curtiss Rose <stever...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I feel the notion Peirce had a complete philosophy is unfair to him and as
> a characterization, any more than Nietzsche or Wittgenstein could be said
> to have such a philosophy.  Aside from the fact that completeness is
> impossible, I explicitly sense that Peirce developed what might be perfect
> control and understanding and knowing to his personal satisfaction  I more
> and more sense that his philosophy is bifurcated both by his interpreters
> and by himself. There is not much point in going on as my posts here are
> not exactly dialog creators. I think that is actually one way of
> understanding him, ironic but perhaps the case. Best, S
> amazon.com/author/stephenrose
>
>>
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