Re: [] Re: Pragmata = Objects?

Nothing new under the sun and all that --
I'm pretty sure I've said it before in
all the ways I can think of to say it --
the people who get it already get it
and the people who don't still don't.

In Peirce's way of thinking, from the theory of inquiry
to the theory of signs to the pragmatic maxim, the word
"object" marks a role in a relation -- object of a sign --
and the role is more important than all the ontological
essences that people may try to squeeze out of the word.
Dewey was especially peirspicacious in articulating the
relational matrix of objects, signs, and interpretants.

Jon Awbrey

John F. Sowa wrote:
> Fotis and Jon,
> 
> Those words are also derived from verbal roots:
> 
> FK> In modern Greek, the meaning is the following:
>  > (all words in plural)
>  >
>  > ???????? == pragmata == things
>  > ??????????? == antikeimena == objects
> 
> In fact, the following three have very similar roots:
> 
> Latin 'objectus' -- thrown against
> 
> German 'Gegenstand' -- standing against
> 
> Greek '???????????' -- lying against
> 
> In general, objects are thrown, standing, or lying around
> or against whatever.  That's true in my house.
> 
> JA> But there seems to be, more lately, or perhaps recurringly,
>> a regression from the hey-days of process, relational, and
>> systems thinking into ontological particularism, a curious
>> compromise formation between essentialism and nominalism.
> 
> All those 'isms are trying to impose somebody's ideology on life.
> What I liked about R-W Mann's analysis of the Aristotelian and
> pre-Aristotelian terminology is his focus on how people actually
> use language.  He suggests that the sharp distinction between
> processes and things was invented by Aristotle, and it's a mistake
> to talk about it as an inevitable "common sense" view.
> 
> Whitehead noted that modern physics is more compatible with the
> views of Heraclitus, who emphasized the flux:  "panta rhei" --
> all flow.  I translated 'panta' as 'all' rather than 'all things'
> to avoid forcing a thing-centered view on Heraclitus.
> 
> John

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