Re: Re: Nominalism and Essentialism are the Scylla and Charybdis that Pragmatism Must Navigate Its Middle Way Between

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Jon- I fully agree. I think the search for 'this' and 'only this' meaning of 
a term slips into that essentialism of 'ontological absolutes'.

Edwina
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jon Awbrey" <[email protected]>
To: "Arisbe List" <[email protected]>; "Inquiry List" <[email protected]>; 
"Peirce List" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2017 10:15 AM
Subject: [PEIRCE-L] Re: Nominalism and Essentialism are the Scylla and 
Charybdis that Pragmatism Must Navigate Its Middle Way Between


> Peircers,
>
> We've been through the nominalism versus realism question so many times 
> that
> I can't think of anything fresh to say about it.  When the use of words 
> like
> Universal, General, Continuous vs. Particular, Singular, Individual comes 
> up
> I find it more useful to focus on the pragmatics of language use relative 
> to
> the context of interpretation, frame of reference, sign relational space, 
> or
> universe of discourse at hand than to go chasing after ontological 
> absolutes.
>
> But I did find this previous comment on Houser on Forster on Peirce while
> I was looking for something else, and it reflects my sense that Peirceans
> have more trouble controlling that slippery slide toward what I've called
> “essentialism” or “ontologism” than they do checking nominalistic drift.
>
> Regards,
>
> Jon
>
> https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2012/09/21/nominalism-and-essentialism-are-the-scylla-and-charybdis-that-pragmatism-must-navigate-its-middle-way-between/
>
> On 9/20/2012 6:10 PM, Jon Awbrey wrote:
>> Peirce Listers,
>>
>> Earlier this summer, Ayşe Mermutlu posted a notice of Nathan Houser's 
>> review
>> of Paul Forster's "Peirce and the Threat of Nominalism" on the Facebook 
>> page
>> of the Charles S. Peirce Society and a brief discussion ensued.
>>
>> 1. http://www.facebook.com/groups/peircesociety/
>> 2. http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/29410-peirce-and-the-threat-of-nominalism/
>> 3. 
>> http://www.facebook.com/groups/peircesociety/permalink/147723215363679/
>>
>> My initial comment was this --
>>
>> JA: Nominalism and Essentialism are the Scylla and Charybdis
>>     that Pragmatism must navigate its middle way between.
>>
>> On being asked what I meant by "essentialism",
>> I glossed it as follows --
>>
>> JA: This is idea that all phenomena are explained by absolute
>>     (monadic, non-relative, or ontological) essences inhering
>>     in objects, as opposed to any notion that some phenomena
>>     can be explained only in terms of relations among objects.
>>     For instance, in semiotics, essentialism leads to the idea
>>     that signhood is a permanent essence inhering in something,
>>     as a matter of its ontology, as opposed to a role that
>>     something performs within the setting of a sign relation.
>>
>> On further interrogation, I added this --
>>
>> JA: If nominalism is the doctrine that generals are only names and
>>     only individuals have objective existence, then essentialism is
>>     the doctrine that all names (logical terms) refer to properties
>>     of individuals.  So a term like “father” is only a relative term
>>     relative to the perspective of a non-omniscient being who cannot
>>     see what individuals are destined to be fathers and what not.
>>
>> I think it's fair to say that most of the Peirce crew is handy enough
>> when it comes to steering clear of nominalism's rock-monster, but not
>> so well-drilled in navigating safely by essentialism's whirly places.
>> At any rate, I keep seeing a drift in that direction pulling the good
>> ship Pragmatism into the eddy of a most likely futile sea battle, and
>> I thought it incumbent on the duty of my watch to report what I see.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Jon
>>
>
> -- 
>
> academia: http://independent.academia.edu/JonAwbrey
> my word press blog: http://inquiryintoinquiry.com/
> isw: http://intersci.ss.uci.edu/wiki/index.php/JLA
> facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/JonnyCache
>


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