Re: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was semantic problem with the term)

2017-03-31 Thread Edwina Taborsky
 

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 Jon, list - again [and I'm stunned] - we agree. I agree with the
arrangement of 1stness-3rdness-2ndness.

Edwina
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 On Fri 31/03/17  3:40 PM , Jon Alan Schmidt jonalanschm...@gmail.com
sent:
 Edwina, List:
 Understood, and I think we agree that within our existing universe,
all three Categories are involved in every phenomenon.  Again,
though, Peirce attributed the "second flash" to "the principle of
habit," which is 3ns rather than 2ns.  Interestingly, this
arrangement of the Categories (1ns→3ns→2ns) is consistent with
the next passage that you quoted ...
  CSP:  The starting-point of the universe, God the Creator, is the
Absolute First; the terminus of the universe, God completely
revealed, is the Absolute Second; every state of the universe at a
measurable point of time is the third. (CP 1.362; 1887-8)
 ... which also echoes the diagram that Jeff introduced in another
thread, presenting inquiry as a similarly hyperbolic process.
 Thanks,
 Jon  
 On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 2:27 PM, Edwina Taborsky  wrote:
Jon, list - yes, I know that you view that 'tendency to take habits'
as preceding 1stness and 2ndness. I have no intention of trying to
persuade you otherwise. 

However -  I view all three as equally primordial. There is no way
that any of them could function without the other.  BUT - I do
consider that the first 'flash' was an action of Firstness; the
second was an action of Secondness..and then, habits emerged in
actuality. BUT - all three are necessary and thus primordial. I do
not subscribe to YOUR view that Thirdness has a priority or privilege
in the primordial set. Again - I consider that all three modes are
primordial. 

Edwina
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 On Fri 31/03/17  1:16 PM , Jon Alan Schmidt jonalanschm...@gmail.com
[3] sent:
 Jeff, List:
 What I find interesting about that quote from "A Guess at the
Riddle" (1887-8) is the often-overlooked implication that "the
principle of habit" (3ns) already had to be in place and operative in
order to bring about the "second flash," which "was in some sense
after the first, because resulting from it."  Peirce only belatedly
recognized this himself; in one of the early manuscript drafts of "A
Neglected Argument for the Reality of God" (1908), he referred to the
notion that the habit-taking tendency brought about the laws of nature
as "my original hypothesis," and then made this comment about it. 
 CSP:  But during the long years which have elapsed since the
hypothesis first suggested itself to me, it may naturally be supposed
that faulty features of the original hypothesis have been brought [to]
my attention by others and have struck me in my own meditations …
Professor Ogden Rood pointed out that there must have been some
original tendency to take habits which did not arise according to my
hypothesis … (R 842) 
 If the tendency to take habits was truly "original," then it seems
to me that 3ns must have preceded 1ns and 2ns in some sense.  This is
consistent with Peirce's remarks about "super-order" in the first
additament to the article (CP 6.490; 1908), as well as the blackboard
diagram in the final RLT lecture (1898); hence the notion of
primordial 3ns or "ur-continuity" that we have discussed on the List
in the past.
 Regards,
Jon Alan Schmidt - Olathe, Kansas, USAProfessional Engineer, Amateur
Philosopher, Lutheran Laymanwww.LinkedIn.com/in/JonAlanSchmidt [4] -
twitter.com/JonAlanSchmidt [5]  
 On Fri, Mar 31, 2017 at 11:46 AM, Jeffrey Brian Downard  wrote:
Edwina, Clark, Jon S, List, 

Let's make a comparison for the sake of framing a question in the
special science of cosmological physics. Does Peirce's explanatory
principle  help to address  the kinds of questions that Ilya
Prigogine  is trying to answer about the irreversibility of
thermodynamical systems? Once again, here is the quote in which
Peirce describes the principle:   “out  of the womb of
indeterminacy, we must say that there would have come something, by
the principle of Firstness, which we may call a flash. Then by the
principle of habit there would have been a second flash…..” (CP, 
1.412)
See: Prigogine, Ilya (1961). Introduction  to Thermodynamics of
Irreversible Processes (Second ed.). New York: Interscience. 
If Peirce is addressing the same sort of question, then are the
Prigogine  and Peirce explaining the irreversibility of such
thermodynamical processes in the same general way? Or, is Peirce
trying to answer a set of prior questions. For instance, one might
infer from the quote above taken together with Peirce says in the
last of  the lectures in Reasoning and the Logic of Things (in

Re: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was semantic problem with the term)

2017-03-31 Thread Edwina Taborsky
 
 Jeff, list: I agree; I have written about how the relations - as I
call them, the Six Relations of:

Firstness -as- Firstness, i.e., genuine Firstness

Secondness -as- Secondness; i.e., genuine Secondness

Thirdness-as-Thirdness, i.e., genuine Thirdness

Secondness-as-Firstness, i.e., degenerate Secondness, or Secondness
operating within a mode also of Firstness

Thirdness-as Firstness, i.e., degenerate Thirdness

Thirdness-as- Secondness
I've written about how these Six Relations - and I agree that ALL of
them are vital - operate to enable particular matter, diversity of
matter, stability of type etc.

I could send you, off list, a paper on this. I don't see posting it
on this list.
I would question, however, whether dyadic 'things' were primary, as
you seem to suggest, and only later evolved to include the triad. I
think the triad is primal.
Edwina
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 This message is virus free, protected by Primus - Canada's 
 largest alternative telecommunications provider. 
 http://www.primus.ca 
 On Fri 31/03/17  4:18 PM , Jeffrey Brian Downard
jeffrey.down...@nau.edu sent:
Edwina, Jon S, List, 
With the aim of sharpening the point, Peirce seems to suggest that,
for the sake of explaining the cosmos, it is important to ask how
degenerate forms of these relations might have grown into more
genuine forms of the relations. 
As such, the question is not simply one of how, as you seem to be
putting it, simple firsts, second and thirds started to grow
together--or of how one simple element might have preceded the other
in some sense. Rather, using the more sophisticated classification 
of types of seconds and thirds that Peirce provides in a number of
places, the question I'm asking is how things having the character of
essential or inherential dyads might have evolved into relational
dyads of diversity, or of how qualitative relational  dyads might
have evolved into dynamical dyads--and how more genuine types of
triads might have evolved from those that were relatively vague. 
This, I think, is a better way of framing the questions coming out
of his work in phenomenology and semiotics. From this work, we are
supposed to derive the resources needed to frame better hypotheses in
metaphysics and, in turn, in the special sciences. 
--Jeff 
Jeffrey Downard
 Associate Professor
 Department of Philosophy
 Northern Arizona University
 (o) 928 523-8354   
-
 From: Edwina Taborsky 
 Sent: Friday, March 31, 2017 12:57 PM
 To: Jon Alan Schmidt; Jeffrey Brian Downard
 Cc: Peirce-L
 Subject: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis
(Was semantic problem with the term) 

Jeff, list - I'll continue to reject that Thirdness  preceded
1stness and 2ndness. I think that ALL THREE are primordial BUT - the
'big bang' action, so to speak, began with Firstness, followed by the
particularity of Secondness, followed by the habit-taking  of
Thirdness. But by this, I do NOT say that Firstness was primordial.
Just that the first expression of the Three Primordial Modes...was
Firstness.  
Agree, that most certainly, the development of Mind-into-Matter was
not by mechanical bits sticking together, but by the indeterminate
becoming determinate. BUT - I'd add that one must never ignore the
power of dissipation and Firstness, which rejects pure  determinates
and constantly includes deviations from the norm - and - dissipation
of the normative habits. 
Edwina
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 This message is virus free, protected by Primus - Canada's 
 largest alternative telecommunications provider. 
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 On Fri 31/03/17 2:23 PM , Jeffrey Brian Downard
jeffrey.down...@nau.edu sent:
Hi Jon S., List, 
You say:  If the tendency to take habits was truly "original," then
it seems to me that 3ns must have preceded 1ns  and 2ns in some
sense.  This is consistent with Peirce's remarks about "super-order"
in the first additament to the article (CP 6.490; 1908), as well as
the blackboard diagram in the final RLT lecture (1898); hence the
notion of primordial 3ns or "ur-continuity"  that we have discussed
on the List in the past.
For my part, it tend to think that Peirce has a remarkably rich set
of resources to draw from for the sake of working out how the various
formal and material elements--studied in both phenomenology and
semiotics--might  be combined in the conceptions he is employing in
formulating these hypotheses concerning the origins of order in the
cosmos. So, for instance, one might think of triadic relations that
embody vague sorts of order for the third part of a genuine triad,
and  dyadic individuals that are just possibles--like essential and
inherential dyads and triads as the "subjects" that are governed by
such primordial forms of what is general. (see "On The Logic of
Mathematics; an attempt") 
Remember, the primary 

RE: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was semantic problem with the term)

2017-04-01 Thread Stephen Jarosek
List,

Regarding the Peircean categories in matter, here are the starting assumptions 
that I work with:

1)  First, a couple of definitions: A HOLON is a mind-body. Every living 
organism, as a mind-body, is a holon. Furthermore, IMITATION is an important 
category of pragmatism. Every organism “learns how to be” through imitation;

2)  The Peircean categories relate to holons. Pragmatism requires a 
mind-body in order to define the things that matter;

3)  An atom or a molecule is a holon;

4)  In the video Inner Life of the Cell <https://youtu.be/FzcTgrxMzZk> , 
what I observe is less chemical reactions (in the conventional, linear, 
materialist sense) than it is a whole ecosystem at the molecular level.

 

In the persistence of atoms and molecules across time, we encounter Peirce’s 
description of matter as  “mind hide-bound in habit,” so we have no argument 
there. But what about pragmatism, or the other categories? From a 
semiotic/pragmatic perspective, how does an atom or molecule define the things 
that matter? 

This is where entanglement (nonlocality) enters the picture. My conjecture is 
that atoms and molecules “know” their proper conduct, or properties, through 
entanglement. Entanglement is their imitation. A molecular “mind-body” has its 
predispositions (secondness, or association) and motivations (firstness), and 
it will act on them as per the video clip… but it can only “know how to be” 
through entanglement. Knowing how to be, I guess, relates in the first instance 
to firstness.

It is along these lines that I base my DNA entanglement thesis: 
https://www.academia.edu/29626663/DNA_ENTANGLEMENT_THE_EVIDENCE_MOUNTS


Imitation plays such an important role in pragmatism and defining the things 
that matter. Even for atoms and molecules. Imitation is perhaps the most 
important antidote to entropy… no let me rephrase that… imitation is perhaps 
central to overcoming entropy. A species sharing identical mind-bodies with 
identical predispositions is one thing, but there are so many possibilities in 
those predispositions that a shared consensus in behavior… imitation… is 
required to enable an ecosystem to hang together. We see this especially in 
human cultures… same mind-bodies, but totally different cultures. Imitation 
whittles down infinite possibility to pragmatic, tangible reality.

sj



 

From: Edwina Taborsky [mailto:tabor...@primus.ca] 
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2017 11:33 PM
To: Jon Alan Schmidt; tabor...@primus.ca; Jeffrey Brian Downard
Cc: Peirce-L
Subject: Re: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was 
semantic problem with the term)

 


Jeff, list: I agree; I have written about how the relations - as I call them, 
the Six Relations of:

Firstness -as- Firstness, i.e., genuine Firstness

Secondness -as- Secondness; i.e., genuine Secondness

Thirdness-as-Thirdness, i.e., genuine Thirdness

Secondness-as-Firstness, i.e., degenerate Secondness, or Secondness operating 
within a mode also of Firstness

Thirdness-as Firstness, i.e., degenerate Thirdness

Thirdness-as- Secondness

 

I've written about how these Six Relations - and I agree that ALL of them are 
vital - operate to enable particular matter, diversity of matter, stability of 
type etc.

I could send you, off list, a paper on this. I don't see posting it on this 
list.

 

I would question, however, whether dyadic 'things' were primary, as you seem to 
suggest, and only later evolved to include the triad. I think the triad is 
primal.

 

Edwina


-- 
This message is virus free, protected by Primus - Canada's 
largest alternative telecommunications provider. 

http://www.primus.ca 

On Fri 31/03/17 4:18 PM , Jeffrey Brian Downard jeffrey.down...@nau.edu sent:

Edwina, Jon S, List,

 

With the aim of sharpening the point, Peirce seems to suggest that, for the 
sake of explaining the cosmos, it is important to ask how degenerate forms of 
these relations might have grown into more genuine forms of the relations.

 

As such, the question is not simply one of how, as you seem to be putting it, 
simple firsts, second and thirds started to grow together--or of how one simple 
element might have preceded the other in some sense. Rather, using the more 
sophisticated classification of types of seconds and thirds that Peirce 
provides in a number of places, the question I'm asking is how things having 
the character of essential or inherential dyads might have evolved into 
relational dyads of diversity, or of how qualitative relational dyads might 
have evolved into dynamical dyads--and how more genuine types of triads might 
have evolved from those that were relatively vague.

 

This, I think, is a better way of framing the questions coming out of his work 
in phenomenology and semiotics. From this work, we are supposed to derive the 
resources needed to frame better hypotheses in metaphysics and, in turn, in the 
special sciences.

 

--Jeff

 

RE: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was semantic problem with the term)

2017-04-01 Thread Stephen Jarosek
I forgot to mention some assumptions in my thought experiment:

1)  Identicality – to be perfectly identical is to be entangled;

2)  Recoherence – there is no such thing as decoherence –but there is 
recoherence when an atom/molecule reconnects with previous states.

 

From: Stephen Jarosek [mailto:sjaro...@iinet.net.au] 
Sent: Saturday, April 1, 2017 9:49 AM
To: tabor...@primus.ca; 'Jon Alan Schmidt'; 'Jeffrey Brian Downard'
Cc: 'Peirce-L'
Subject: RE: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was 
semantic problem with the term)

 

List,

Regarding the Peircean categories in matter, here are the starting assumptions 
that I work with:

1)  First, a couple of definitions: A HOLON is a mind-body. Every living 
organism, as a mind-body, is a holon. Furthermore, IMITATION is an important 
category of pragmatism. Every organism “learns how to be” through imitation;

2)  The Peircean categories relate to holons. Pragmatism requires a 
mind-body in order to define the things that matter;

3)  An atom or a molecule is a holon;

4)  In the video Inner Life of the Cell <https://youtu.be/FzcTgrxMzZk> , 
what I observe is less chemical reactions (in the conventional, linear, 
materialist sense) than it is a whole ecosystem at the molecular level.

 

In the persistence of atoms and molecules across time, we encounter Peirce’s 
description of matter as  “mind hide-bound in habit,” so we have no argument 
there. But what about pragmatism, or the other categories? From a 
semiotic/pragmatic perspective, how does an atom or molecule define the things 
that matter? 

This is where entanglement (nonlocality) enters the picture. My conjecture is 
that atoms and molecules “know” their proper conduct, or properties, through 
entanglement. Entanglement is their imitation. A molecular “mind-body” has its 
predispositions (secondness, or association) and motivations (firstness), and 
it will act on them as per the video clip… but it can only “know how to be” 
through entanglement. Knowing how to be, I guess, relates in the first instance 
to firstness.

It is along these lines that I base my DNA entanglement thesis: 
https://www.academia.edu/29626663/DNA_ENTANGLEMENT_THE_EVIDENCE_MOUNTS


Imitation plays such an important role in pragmatism and defining the things 
that matter. Even for atoms and molecules. Imitation is perhaps the most 
important antidote to entropy… no let me rephrase that… imitation is perhaps 
central to overcoming entropy. A species sharing identical mind-bodies with 
identical predispositions is one thing, but there are so many possibilities in 
those predispositions that a shared consensus in behavior… imitation… is 
required to enable an ecosystem to hang together. We see this especially in 
human cultures… same mind-bodies, but totally different cultures. Imitation 
whittles down infinite possibility to pragmatic, tangible reality.

sj

 

From: Edwina Taborsky [mailto:tabor...@primus.ca] 
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2017 11:33 PM
To: Jon Alan Schmidt; tabor...@primus.ca; Jeffrey Brian Downard
Cc: Peirce-L
Subject: Re: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was 
semantic problem with the term)

 


Jeff, list: I agree; I have written about how the relations - as I call them, 
the Six Relations of:

Firstness -as- Firstness, i.e., genuine Firstness

Secondness -as- Secondness; i.e., genuine Secondness

Thirdness-as-Thirdness, i.e., genuine Thirdness

Secondness-as-Firstness, i.e., degenerate Secondness, or Secondness operating 
within a mode also of Firstness

Thirdness-as Firstness, i.e., degenerate Thirdness

Thirdness-as- Secondness

 

I've written about how these Six Relations - and I agree that ALL of them are 
vital - operate to enable particular matter, diversity of matter, stability of 
type etc.

I could send you, off list, a paper on this. I don't see posting it on this 
list.

 

I would question, however, whether dyadic 'things' were primary, as you seem to 
suggest, and only later evolved to include the triad. I think the triad is 
primal.

 

Edwina


-- 
This message is virus free, protected by Primus - Canada's 
largest alternative telecommunications provider. 

http://www.primus.ca 

On Fri 31/03/17 4:18 PM , Jeffrey Brian Downard jeffrey.down...@nau.edu sent:

Edwina, Jon S, List,

 

With the aim of sharpening the point, Peirce seems to suggest that, for the 
sake of explaining the cosmos, it is important to ask how degenerate forms of 
these relations might have grown into more genuine forms of the relations.

 

As such, the question is not simply one of how, as you seem to be putting it, 
simple firsts, second and thirds started to grow together--or of how one simple 
element might have preceded the other in some sense. Rather, using the more 
sophisticated classification of types of seconds and thirds that Peirce 
provides in a number of places, t

Re: RE: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was semantic problem with the term)

2017-04-01 Thread Edwina Taborsky
 

Stephen - interesting outline. 
I'd use the term 'Sign' [capital S] to mean, I think, what you mean
by a 'holon'.
And I agree with your notion of non-local  'entanglement' which I
would refer to as 'informational networking'. It is also non-local.
And I'd also agree that imitation is vital, but I'd define such an
action more through the development of common GENERAL habits-of-form
and behaviour than pure active imitation or direct copying.
Edwina
 -- 
 This message is virus free, protected by Primus - Canada's 
 largest alternative telecommunications provider. 
 http://www.primus.ca 
 On Sat 01/04/17  3:48 AM , "Stephen Jarosek" sjaro...@iinet.net.au
sent:
List,
 Regarding the Peircean categories in matter, here are the starting
assumptions that I work with:

 1)  First, a couple of definitions: A HOLON is a mind-body.
Every living organism, as a mind-body, is a holon. Furthermore,
IMITATION is an important category of pragmatism. Every organism
“learns how to be” through imitation;

 2)  The Peircean categories relate to holons. Pragmatism
requires a mind-body in order to define the things that matter;

 3)  An atom or a molecule is a holon;

 4)  In the video Inner Life of the Cell [1], what I observe is
less chemical reactions (in the conventional, linear, materialist
sense) than it is a whole ecosystem at the molecular level.
In the persistence of atoms and molecules across time, we encounter
Peirce’s description of matter as  “mind hide-bound in habit,”
so we have no argument there. But what about pragmatism, or the other
categories? From a semiotic/pragmatic perspective, how does an atom or
molecule define the things that matter? 
 This is where entanglement (nonlocality) enters the picture. My
conjecture is that atoms and molecules “know” their proper
conduct, or properties, through entanglement. Entanglement is their
imitation. A molecular “mind-body” has its predispositions
(secondness, or association) and motivations (firstness), and it will
act on them as per the video clip… but it can only “know how to
be” through entanglement. Knowing how to be, I guess, relates in
the first instance to firstness.
 It is along these lines that I base my DNA entanglement thesis: 

https://www.academia.edu/29626663/DNA_ENTANGLEMENT_THE_EVIDENCE_MOUNTS
[2]
 Imitation plays such an important role in pragmatism and defining
the things that matter. Even for atoms and molecules. Imitation is
perhaps the most important antidote to entropy… no let me rephrase
that… imitation is perhaps central to overcoming entropy. A species
sharing identical mind-bodies with identical predispositions is one
thing, but there are so many possibilities in those predispositions
that a shared consensus in behavior… imitation… is required to
enable an ecosystem to hang together. We see this especially in human
cultures… same mind-bodies, but totally different cultures.
Imitation whittles down infinite possibility to pragmatic, tangible
reality.
 sj
From: Edwina Taborsky [mailto:tabor...@primus.ca [3]] 
 Sent: Friday, March 31, 2017 11:33 PM
 To: Jon Alan Schmidt; tabor...@primus.ca [4]; Jeffrey Brian Downard
 Cc: Peirce-L
 Subject: Re: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological
Semiosis (Was semantic problem with the term)
 Jeff, list: I agree; I have written about how the relations - as I
call them, the Six Relations of:

Firstness -as- Firstness, i.e., genuine Firstness 

Secondness -as- Secondness; i.e., genuine Secondness

Thirdness-as-Thirdness, i.e., genuine Thirdness

Secondness-as-Firstness, i.e., degenerate Secondness, or Secondness
operating within a mode also of Firstness

Thirdness-as Firstness, i.e., degenerate Thirdness

Thirdness-as- Secondness
I've written about how these Six Relations - and I agree that ALL of
them are vital - operate to enable particular matter, diversity of
matter, stability of type etc. 

I could send you, off list, a paper on this. I don't see posting it
on this list.
I would question, however, whether dyadic 'things' were primary, as
you seem to suggest, and only later evolved to include the triad. I
think the triad is primal.
Edwina
 -- 
 This message is virus free, protected by Primus - Canada's 
 largest alternative telecommunications provider. 
  http://www.primus.ca [5] 
 On Fri 31/03/17 4:18 PM , Jeffrey Brian Downard
jeffrey.down...@nau.edu [6] sent:

Edwina, Jon S, List, 
With the aim of sharpening the point, Peirce seems to suggest that,
for the sake of explaining the cosmos, it is important to ask how
degenerate forms of these relations might have grown into more
genuine forms of the relations.
As such, the question is not simply one of how, as you seem to be
putting it, sim

RE: RE: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was semantic problem with the term)

2017-04-01 Thread Stephen Jarosek
>”And I'd also agree that imitation is vital, but I'd define such an action 
>more through the development of common GENERAL habits-of-form and behaviour 
>than pure active imitation or direct copying.”

I am 100% with you on this. I just did a synonym search on imitation, without 
luck. I think we need to invent a new word to more accurately describe this 
replication and sharing of signs/behavior.

 

From: Edwina Taborsky [mailto:tabor...@primus.ca] 
Sent: Saturday, April 1, 2017 2:30 PM
To: tabor...@primus.ca; 'Jon Alan Schmidt'; 'Jeffrey Brian Downard'; Stephen 
Jarosek
Cc: 'Peirce-L'
Subject: Re: RE: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis 
(Was semantic problem with the term)

 

Stephen - interesting outline. 

 

I'd use the term 'Sign' [capital S] to mean, I think, what you mean by a 
'holon'.

 

And I agree with your notion of non-local  'entanglement' which I would refer 
to as 'informational networking'. It is also non-local.

 

And I'd also agree that imitation is vital, but I'd define such an action more 
through the development of common GENERAL habits-of-form and behaviour than 
pure active imitation or direct copying.

 

Edwina

-- 
This message is virus free, protected by Primus - Canada's 
largest alternative telecommunications provider. 

http://www.primus.ca 

On Sat 01/04/17 3:48 AM , "Stephen Jarosek" sjaro...@iinet.net.au sent:

List,

Regarding the Peircean categories in matter, here are the starting assumptions 
that I work with:

1)  First, a couple of definitions: A HOLON is a mind-body. Every living 
organism, as a mind-body, is a holon. Furthermore, IMITATION is an important 
category of pragmatism. Every organism “learns how to be” through imitation;

2)  The Peircean categories relate to holons. Pragmatism requires a 
mind-body in order to define the things that matter;

3)  An atom or a molecule is a holon;

4)  In the video Inner Life of the Cell <https://youtu.be/FzcTgrxMzZk> , 
what I observe is less chemical reactions (in the conventional, linear, 
materialist sense) than it is a whole ecosystem at the molecular level.

 

In the persistence of atoms and molecules across time, we encounter Peirce’s 
description of matter as  “mind hide-bound in habit,” so we have no argument 
there. But what about pragmatism, or the other categories? From a 
semiotic/pragmatic perspective, how does an atom or molecule define the things 
that matter? 

This is where entanglement (nonlocality) enters the picture. My conjecture is 
that atoms and molecules “know” their proper conduct, or properties, through 
entanglement. Entanglement is their imitation. A molecular “mind-body” has its 
predispositions (secondness, or association) and motivations (firstness), and 
it will act on them as per the video clip… but it can only “know how to be” 
through entanglement. Knowing how to be, I guess, relates in the first instance 
to firstness.

It is along these lines that I base my DNA entanglement thesis: 
https://www.academia.edu/29626663/DNA_ENTANGLEMENT_THE_EVIDENCE_MOUNTS


Imitation plays such an important role in pragmatism and defining the things 
that matter. Even for atoms and molecules. Imitation is perhaps the most 
important antidote to entropy… no let me rephrase that… imitation is perhaps 
central to overcoming entropy. A species sharing identical mind-bodies with 
identical predispositions is one thing, but there are so many possibilities in 
those predispositions that a shared consensus in behavior… imitation… is 
required to enable an ecosystem to hang together. We see this especially in 
human cultures… same mind-bodies, but totally different cultures. Imitation 
whittles down infinite possibility to pragmatic, tangible reality.

sj

 

From: Edwina Taborsky [mailto:tabor...@primus.ca 
 ] 
Sent: Friday, March 31, 2017 11:33 PM
To: Jon Alan Schmidt; tabor...@primus.ca 
 ; Jeffrey Brian 
Downard
Cc: Peirce-L
Subject: Re: Re: Re: [PEIRCE-L] Physico-Chemical and Biological Semiosis (Was 
semantic problem with the term)

 


Jeff, list: I agree; I have written about how the relations - as I call them, 
the Six Relations of:

Firstness -as- Firstness, i.e., genuine Firstness 

Secondness -as- Secondness; i.e., genuine Secondness

Thirdness-as-Thirdness, i.e., genuine Thirdness

Secondness-as-Firstness, i.e., degenerate Secondness, or Secondness operating 
within a mode also of Firstness

Thirdness-as Firstness, i.e., degenerate Thirdness

Thirdness-as- Secondness

 

I've written about how these Six Relations - and I agree that ALL of them are 
vital - operate to enable particular matter, diversity of matter, stability of 
type etc. 

I could send you, off list, a paper on this. I don't see posting it on this 
list.

 

I would question, however, whether dyadic 'things' were primary, as you seem to 
sug