Precursors Of Category Theory • 3

Act only according to that maxim by which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.

Immanuel Kant (1785)

C.S. Peirce • “On a New List of Categories” (1867)

§1.  This paper is based upon the theory already established, that the function of conceptions is to reduce the manifold of sensuous impressions to unity, and that the validity of a conception consists in the impossibility of reducing the content of consciousness to unity without the introduction of it.  (CP 1.545).

§2.  This theory gives rise to a conception of gradation among those conceptions which are universal.  For one such conception may unite the manifold of sense and yet another may be required to unite the conception and the manifold to which it is applied;  and so on.  (CP 1.546).

Cued by Kant’s idea regarding the function of concepts in general, Peirce locates his categories on the highest levels of abstraction able to provide a meaningful measure of traction in practice.  Whether successive grades of conceptions converge to an absolute unity or not is a question to be pursued as inquiry progresses and need not be answered in order to begin.

Resources

cc: FB | Peirce MattersLaws of FormMathstodonOntologAcademia.edu
cc: Conceptual GraphsCyberneticsStructural ModelingSystems Science

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1 Response to Precursors Of Category Theory • 3

  1. Pingback: Survey of Precursors Of Category Theory • 5 | Inquiry Into Inquiry

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