[Inquiry] Re: Manifolds Of Diverse Impressions

[Jon Awbrey]

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o

MODI.  Note 10

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o

| Section 6.  The Ground
|
| The conception of 'being' arises upon the formation of a proposition.
| A proposition, besides a term to express the substance, always has
| another to express the quality of that substance;  and the function
| of the conception of being is to unite the quality to the substance.
| Quality, therefore, is the first conception in order in passing from
| being to substance.
|
| Quality, at first sight, like every other
| elementary conception, seems to be given
| in the impression.  Such results of
| introspection are untrustworthy.
|
| A proposition asserts the applicability of a mediate conception to
| a more immediate one, -- asserts, that is, that the former affords
| a means of reducing the latter to unity.  Since this is 'asserted',
| the more mediate conception is clearly regarded independently of
| this circumstance, for otherwise the two conceptions would not
| be distinguished, but one would be thought through the other,
| without this latter being an object of thought, at all.
|
| The mediate conception, then, in order to be 'asserted' to be applied to
| the other must be considered first without regard to this circumstance,
| and taken immediately.  But, taken immediately it transcends what is
| given, the more immediate conception, and its applicability to the
| latter becomes hypothetical.
|
| Take, for example, the proposition "Ink is black".
| Here, the conception 'ink' is the more immediate;
| that of 'black' is the more mediate, which to be
| predicated of the former must be discriminated
| from it and considered 'in itself', not as
| applied to an object but simply as embodying
| a quality, 'blackness'.  Now this 'blackness',
| is a pure 'species' or abstraction, and its
| application is entirely hypothetical.
|
| In the words of a philosopher of the 12th Century "cum
| dicitur 'Socrates est rationalis' hic est sensus 'Socrates
| est unus de subjectis huic formae quae est rationalitas'".*
| 'Embodying rationality' defines 'rational'.  We mean the
| same thing when we say "the ink is black" as when we say
| "there is blackness in the ink";  'embodying blackness'
| defines 'black'.  The proof is that these conceptions
| are applied indifferently to precisely the same facts.
| If, therefore, they were different, the one which was
| first applied would fulfill every function of the
| other;  so that one of them would be superfluous.
| But now a superfluous elementary conception is
| impossible;  for a superfluous conception would
| be an arbitrary fiction, whereas elementary
| conceptions arise only upon the requirement
| of experience.  Moreover, the conception
| of a 'pure abstraction' is indispensible,
| because we cannot comprehend an agreement
| of two things except as an agreement in
| some 'respect', and this respect is such
| a pure abstraction as 'blackness'.
|
| The pure abstraction reference to which constitutes a 'quality' may
| be called a 'ground', of the character of the substance which has
| the quality.  Reference to a ground, then, is the first accident.
| It cannot be prescinded from 'being', but being can be prescinded
| from it.
|
|* 'De Generibus et Speciebus', p. 528.
|  [cf. editorial note in CE 1, p. 562]
|
| C.S. Peirce, 'Chronological Edition', CE 1, 521-522
|
|["On a Method of Searching for the Categories"], MS 133 (1866), pp. 515-528 in:
|'Writings of Charles S. Peirce:  A Chronological Edition, Vol. 1, 1857-1866',
| Peirce Edition Project, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1982.

o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o
inquiry e-lab: http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/
o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o~~~~~~~~~o