Gary F., List:

Thanks for providing a direct link to your excellent primer on Peirce's
distinctive practice of phenomenology/phaneroscopy/phenoscopy. The last
term is new to me, and unfortunately an online search reveals that a
"Phenoscope" is now being used in biology for performing large-scale
experiments with small plants to ascertain "how genetic diversity shapes
phenotypic variation" (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23452317/). In any
case, your poetic opening is reminiscent of this passage in "A Neglected
Argument for the Reality of God."

CSP: If one who had determined to make trial of Musement as a favorite
recreation were to ask me for advice, I should reply as follows: The dawn
and the gloaming most invite one to Musement; but I have found no watch of
the nychthemeron that has not its own advantages for the pursuit. It begins
passively enough with drinking in the impression of some nook in one of the
three Universes. But impression soon passes into attentive observation,
observation into musing, musing into a lively give-and-take of communion
between self and self. ...
So, continuing the counsels that had been asked of me, I should say, "Enter
your skiff of Musement, push off into the lake of thought, and leave the
breath of heaven to swell your sail. With your eyes open, awake to what is
about or within you, and open conversation with yourself; for such is all
meditation." It is, however, not a conversation in words alone, but is
illustrated, like a lecture, with diagrams and with experiments. (CP
6.459&461, EP 2:436-437, 1908)


As you note, unfortunately many of us jump all too quickly and easily from
contemplating the appearances to formulating and applying theories about
the reality underlying them. I am aware that I myself tend to slip into
logic, semeiotic, and metaphysics. Others always seem to go straight to the
special sciences of physics, chemistry, and biology that study "material
entities" or their psychical counterparts like linguistics. In accordance
with Peirce's classification, exploring how his "categories function in the
real world" properly falls within these fields, *not
*phenomenology/phaneroscopy/phenoscopy.
Some even conflate "our physico-chemical and biological worlds" with "the
phenomenological world," persistently failing to recognize that the latter
consists *only *of whatever is or could be present to the mind, which is *not
*to say that it is confined to "human experience."

Regards,

Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USA
Structural Engineer, Synechist Philosopher, Lutheran Christian
www.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt - twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt

On Fri, Mar 12, 2021 at 10:04 AM <[email protected]> wrote:

> When the subject of Peirce’s “categories” arises, the discourse always
> seems to jump directly into theoretical issues and applications. Even in
> published studies there seems to be little discussion of the *practice*
> of phenomenology or phaneroscopy (or phenoscopy, the term Peirce introduced
> in the *Century Dictionary*). But I agree with Jon Alan that this
> practice, and especially the practice of *prescission*, is the
> experiential basis of whatever we can say about Peirce’s “categories” or
> “formal elements of the phaneron.”
>
> I have accordingly tried to draft a short introductory-level ‘manual’ for
> this practice: https://gnusystems.ca/TS/pheno.htm. (This is now
> incorporated as the “Presign” into *Turning Signs
> <https://gnusystems.ca/TS/index.html>*, as its introduction to Thirdness
> leads into some basics of semiotics.) Of course it’s possible that someone
> else has done something like this, perhaps done it better, somewhere on the
> Net, and if anyone knows of such a text I’d appreciate notification of it.
> Meanwhile I’d welcome any discussion of my attempt on the list, with a view
> to improving or expanding it.
>
> Gary f.
>
> } I want to ask the meaning of spring's coming, but even the plum blossoms
> do not know. [Dogen] {
>
> https://gnusystems.ca/wp/ }{ living the time
>
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