Linguistics, Semiotics, and Philosophy - Molecular Theory of the Living Cell - page 173

Firstness

Secondness Thirdness

Fig. 6.5 A diagrammatic representation of the principle of irreducible triadicity of Firstness,
Secondness, and Thirdness of Peirce (Goudge 1969; Hausman 1997; de Waal 2001; Sheriff 1994;
Feibleman 1946)

feeling, possibilities), Secondness (e.g., facts, actualities, reaction, interaction, brute
force), and Thirdness (e.g., generality, laws, habit-taking, representation, reasoning)
(Fig. 6.5 ). For example, in logic, there are three kinds of relations; C ¼ monadic,

A ¼ dyadic, and B ¼ triadic relation. We may represent this principle diagrammat-

ically as follows:
The Threeness plays a fundamental role in the metaphysics of Peirce, metaphysics
being the study of the most general traits of reality. Reality is the object of the
conclusions one cannot help drawing . As pointed out by Pierce, “When a mathemati-
cal demonstration is clearly apprehended, we are forced to admit the conclusion. It is
evident; and we cannot think otherwise.” (Goudge 1969). Metaphysics studies “the
kinds of phenomena with which every man's experience is so saturated that he usually
pays no particular attention to them.” One way to get a feel of the three metaphysical
categories of Peirce is through some of the examples that Peirce gave of these
categories throughout his career. These are collected in Table 6.7 , which was adopted
from (Debrock 1998). It is evident that the examples are not logically tight, and,
indeed, they are “vague” or “fuzzy” (Sect. 5.2.5 ) , and even contradictory in some
cases, having some overlaps here and there and missing some examples as well.
Nevertheless, it is possible to recognize (1) the unmistakable family resemblances
among most of the items listed within each category (i.e., within each column) and
(2) distinct family characteristics present among the three categories (i.e., within
each row).

6.2.3 Peircean Signs as Gnergons

One corollary of Fig. 6.4 is that the elucidation of the connection between semiotics
and life would be tantamount to elucidating the principles underlying semiosis itself
(in agreement with Sebeok 1990), and this is because life (as exemplified by cells
and mind) presupposes semiosis. Based on the information-energy complementar-
ity principle discussed in Sect. 2.3.2 , we can conclude that, like all fundamental
processes in nature, semiosis must have two complementary aspects - the energetic/
material (e.g., computer hardware, or ATP in cells) and the informational (e.g.,
computer software or genetic information encoded in DNA). Of these two aspects,