Six Ways of Looking At A Sign Relation
In the context of 3-adic relations in general, Peirce provides the following illustration of the six converses of a 3-adic relation, that is, the six differently ordered ways of stating what is logically the same 3-adic relation:
- So in a triadic fact, say, the example
| A gives B to C |
- we make no distinction in the ordinary logic of relations between the subject nominative, the direct object, and the indirect object. We say that the proposition has three logical subjects. We regard it as a mere affair of English grammar that there are six ways of expressing this:
| A gives B to C | A benefits C with B |
| B enriches C at expense of A | C receives B from A |
| C thanks A for B | B leaves A for C |
- These six sentences express one and the same indivisible phenomenon. (C.S. Peirce, "The Categories Defended", MS 308 (1903), EP 2, 170-171).
Read more about this topic: Sign Relation
Famous quotes containing the words ways, sign and/or relation:
“American feminists have generally stressed the ways in which men and women should be equal and have therefore tried to put aside differences.... Social feminists [in Europe] ... believe that men and society at large should provide systematic support to women in recognition of their dual role as mothers and workers.”
—Sylvia Ann Hewitt (20th century)
“When much intercourse with a friend has supplied us with a standard of excellence, and has increased our respect for the resources of God who thus sends a real person to outgo our ideal; when he has, moreover, become an object of thought, and, whilst his character retains all its unconscious effect, is converted in the mind into solid and sweet wisdom,—it is a sign to us that his office is closing, and he is commonly withdrawn from our sight in a short time.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“To criticize is to appreciate, to appropriate, to take intellectual possession, to establish in fine a relation with the criticized thing and to make it one’s own.”
—Henry James (1843–1916)