Why C.S. Peirce's Metaphysical Logic Will Blow Your Mind

yellowdex (25)in #philosophy • 8 years ago

Three points are required to make a triangle, and two points to make a line, but only one philosopher could've come up with an answer to everything, and that philosopher is C.S. Peirce. Peirce viewed logic not as syllogistic nor inferential, but as triadic. To properly perform logic, according to Peirce, you must have three separate entities, the whole of which forms something greater than the parts. A symbol that relates to an object, an object that relates to a person, and a person that relates to a symbol. Peirce called the symbol the "representamen," the object the "determinant," and the person the "interpretant."

Just as a minimum of three points are needed in Geometry to create a triangle, so a minimum of three entities are needed in experience to create a logical conclusion. Each of Peirce's three terms mentioned above may be imagined as points of a triangle. The whole of the points in relation to each other is greater than their sum individually.

Despite Peirce's common-sensical approach to logic, many people (even among logicians) don't know his name. The success of his two pupils (John Dewey and William James) seems to have been noisier than his own. Although Peirce was a professor and wrote voluminously, Peirce's non-intrusive, factual, and fair method of philosophizing kept him from becoming the center of more philosophical attention which he deserves even today.

#logic #pragmatism #realism #aristotle