[Inquiry] Re: Kaina Stoicheia -- Commentary

[Jon Awbrey]

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KS.  Commentary Note 9

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Peirce List,

It appears that many misunderstandings of what's being said
at the end of Peirce's "Kaina Stoicheia"/"New Elements" essay
arise from a failure to keep in mind what was being said at the
beginning, especially with regard to the original model on which
Peirce's innovation is designed, to wit, the "Old Elements" of the
eponymous Euclid that motivated Peirce's own attempts at emulation.

Thus, as I have always suspected, it will be necessary to return to
the beginning in order to place the end, that is to say, the object,
in its proper perspective.

What the editors of the version in 'The Essential Peirce' say by
way of orientation is apt enough to bear repeating at this point:

| New Elements [Kaina Stoicheia]
|
| MS 517.  [First published in NEM 4:235-63.  This document was most
| probably written in early 1904, as a preface to an intended book on
| the foundations of mathematics.]  Peirce begins with a discussion of
| "the Euclidean style" he planned to follow in his book.  Euclid's
| 'Elements' presuppose an understanding of the logical structure
| of mathematics (geometry) that Peirce, in his "New Elements",
| wants to explicate.
|
| Headnote to Selection 22, "New Elements", p. 300 in:
| Peirce Edition Project (eds.), 'The Essential Peirce,
| Selected Philosophical Writings, Volume 2 (1893-1913)',
| Indiana University Press, Bloomington, IN, 1998.

Da capo, al fine ...

Jon Awbrey

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