Peirce on the Symbolical Foundation of Personhood

• Authors: André De Tienne

Abstracts

EN

This paper discusses the semiotic and metaphysical framework within which Peirce elaborated a symbolical and dynamical conception of personhood. It exhibits the centrality of Peirce’s early conception of the “unity of consistency” along with its decentering advantages. It describes how this gave rise to a metaphysics of personhood that questions the singularity of individuals. It then conducts a semiotic study of the evolutive process across which something indeterminate evolves into something determinate that increasingly personifies itself following the logic of symbolization, taking into account two major types of indetermination: generality and vagueness. It then considers the kind of teleology at work within personification. It concludes that personhood so conceived is not restricted to only individual human beings, for the process of symbolization at work is not confined to a particular species-specific application.

Keywords

EN

Peirce; Wittgenstein; personhood; determination; symbol; vagueness; generality

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Warszawski
• Journal: Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture
• Year: 2021
• Volume: 5
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 79-100

Dates

published

2021

Contributors

author

André De Tienne

• Department of Philosophy, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

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Identifiers

DOI

10.14394/eidos.jpc.2021.0040

Biblioteka Nauki

2044644