Author Archives: Jon Awbrey

Pseudo-Choice

Choices at one level of freedom depend on enabling or prerequisite choices being available at more basic levels of freedom. A situation of Pseudo-Choice is created when you offer people a choice at a high level of freedom without ensuring … Continue reading

Posted in Commerce, Democracy, Education, Governance, Rhetoric, The Big Picture | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

The Place Where Three Wars Meet

One of the interesting things about the curse of our nation’s interesting times is the chance we have to observe how that triple threat — the War on Democracy, the War on Education, and the War on Science — work … Continue reading

Posted in Democracy, Education, Governance, Information, Inquiry, Science | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments

How Did It Come To This?

What brought us to this pass is the simple fact that too many people who take the most good from operating in a civilized, democratic, educated society have chosen not to pay for the goods they receive. These people harbor … Continue reading

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The Unmet Challenge of Peirce’s Work

NB. I am posting these incipient thoughts as a promissory note, in hopes of nudging myself to develop the theme as time goes by. The Unrealized Potential of Peirce’s Thought One of my main philosophical and practical concerns for many … Continue reading

Posted in Anthem, Inquiry, Peirce | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

C.S. Peirce • Of Triadic Being

Selection from C.S. Peirce, “Some Amazing Mazes, Fourth Curiosity” (c. 1909) Of triadic Being the multitude of forms is so terrific that I have usually shrunk from the task of enumerating them; and for the present purpose such an enumeration would … Continue reading

Posted in Logic, Logic of Relatives, Mathematics, Peirce, References, Relation Theory, Semiotics, Sources | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Definition and Determination • 8

Re: Peirce List • Jim Willgoose (1) (2) The most general meaning of “formal” is “concerned with form”, but the Latin “forma” can mean “beauty” in addition to “form”, so perhaps a normative “goodness of form” enters at this root. … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Definition, Determination, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce, Phenomenology, Semiotics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Definition and Determination • 7

Peirce clearly set great store by his 1902 definition of logic as formal semiotic, whose principles he proposed to deduce by evident and rigorous mathematical reasoning from his triadic relational definition of a sign. It is from this definition, together … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Definition, Determination, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce, Phenomenology, Semiotics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Definition and Determination • 6

Re: Peirce List • Gary Fuhrman (1) (2) The following two passages may help to clarify Peirce’s admittedly peculiar usage of “formal” in this context. C.S. Peirce • Objective Logic C.S. Peirce • Logic as Semiotic Re: Peirce List • … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Definition, Determination, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce, Phenomenology, Semiotics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

C.S. Peirce • Logic as Semiotic

Selection from C.S. Peirce, “Ground, Object, and Interpretant” (c. 1897) Logic, in its general sense, is, as I believe I have shown, only another name for semiotic (σημειωτική), the quasi-necessary, or formal, doctrine of signs.  By describing the doctrine as … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce, References, Semiotics, Sources | Tagged , , , , , , , | 29 Comments

Definition and Determination • 5

Walking the line between phenomenology and mathematics, let us cast our eyes on the prize of defining logic.  Peirce defines logic as formal semiotic — and that in turn calls for a definition of sign. Here is a place where … Continue reading

Posted in C.S. Peirce, Definition, Determination, Inquiry, Logic, Mathematics, Peirce, Phenomenology, Semiotics | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments