Jeff, List:

JD: when the cars make contact, does the triadic relation exist?


What does it mean to say that a relation *exists*? Can a relation itself *react
*with other like things in the environment? Or is it just another way of
saying that a relation is *existential*? If so, is there anything more to
it than being a relation between *things *that exist--i.e., the relation *is
*a reaction between like things in the environment?

JD: In saying that the triadic relation is degenerate, do you take that to
imply it is reducible in all cases?


I do not understand this question. By definition, a dyadically degenerate
triadic relation is one that is reducible to its constituent dyadic
relations. If it is not thus reducible, then by definition, it is a genuine
triadic relation.

JD: If so, is that another way of saying that it isn't really a triadic
relation--or just that it isn't genuine?


Any relation that has three correlates is a triadic relation. In fact,
according to Peirce's reduction thesis, any relation that has three *or
more* correlates is a triadic relation.

Was that helpful at all?

Regards,

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

On Sun, Mar 28, 2021 at 9:34 PM Jeffrey Brian Downard <
[email protected]> wrote:

> Jon, List,
>
> Here is a small technical point. Consider the classification of triadic
> relations Peirce provides in "The Logic of Mathematics, an attempt to
> develop my categories from within."
>
> He draws a distinction between the following classes of triadic relations:
>
>
>    1.  A monadically degenerate triadic relation, such as a relation of
>    similarity between three qualities of color.
>    2. A dyadically degenerate triadic relation, such as a relation
>    between three existing individual objects (e.g., three cars simultaneously
>    running into one another at a three-way intersection).
>    3. A genuinely triadic relation between facts, such as a physical law
>    governing the relation of cause and effect between two masses.
>    4. A thoroughly genuine triadic relation between object, sign and
>    interpretant.
>
>
> Just out of curiosity, what do you think we should say about the second
> sort of triadic relation:  when the cars make contact, does the triadic
> relation exist? In saying that the triadic relation is degenerate, do you
> take that to imply it is reducible in all cases? If so, is that another way
> of saying that it isn't really a triadic relation--or just that it isn't
> genuine?
>
> --Jeff
> Jeffrey Downard
> Associate Professor
> Department of Philosophy
> Northern Arizona University
> (o) 928 523-8354
>
>>
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