[Inquiry] Re: Futures Of Logical Graphs -- Discussion

[Jon Awbrey]

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

FOLG.  Discussion Note 17

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

JA = Jon Awbrey
JR = Joe Ransdell

Re: FOLG-DIS 16.  http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/003164.html
In: FOLG-DIS.     http://stderr.org/pipermail/inquiry/2005-October/thread.html#3135

Joe, Peirce List,

Many of the difficulties in understanding what Peirce is saying about pure icons,
pro or con, turn on the issue of what he meant by "involve" in the various texts.
If the word lacks definition or is used in different senses in different places,
then there is little hope of resolving the issue, though it would explain some
of the divergences in what he says.

On first approaching the excerpts in question, I assumed that Peirce
was using the word "involve" simply as a synonym for some other word
that does have a clear and express definition in his overall thought.
What seems like an plausible candidate here is for "involve" to mean
involvement as a relational component.  On this reading, to say that
"X involves Y", or, to put it more specifically in relational terms,
to say that "any relation of type X involves a relation of type Y",
amounts to saying that "any relation of type X is a composition of
relations, one of which is of type Y".  On this interpretation of
"involvement", saying that a sign relation of symbolic type must
involve a sign relation of iconic type would appear to deny the
fundamental property of 3-adic irreducibility to sign relations
of symbolic type.  This way of reading things still seems the
most likely one to me, but there are a few rough spots in it,
for example:  What exactly should we mean by a sign relation
of type X?  Would that be a sign relation that contains at
least one sign of type X, or a sign relation that contains
only signs of type X?  That's as far as I've gotten along
that line of inquiry for now, and so I will leave it ...

For The Time Being,

Jon Awbrey

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