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FROM REALISM to “REALICISM” to “REALICISM” “This Is a Sharply Focused Yet Engagingly Written Study of Charles Peirce’S Nuanced Position

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FROM REALISM to “REALICISM” to “REALICISM” “This Is a Sharply Focused Yet Engagingly Written Study of Charles Peirce’S Nuanced Position RealismRealicismPODPBK.qxd 9/3/08 4:23 PM Page 1 Philosophy Mayorga “I now understand some nuances of Charles Sanders Peirce’s realism for the first time as a result of Rosa Maria Perez-Teran Mayorga’s careful study. She goes FROM REALISM beyond Boler in a number of ways, especially in showing how Peirce’s ‘realicism’ connects and elucidates other areas of his philosophy. Dr. Mayorga’s work on Peirce’s scholastic realism will set the standard in this area and has opened a new program of Peirce research.” —Nathan Houser, Peirce Edition Project FROM REALISM TO “REALICISM” REALISM TO FROM TO “REALICISM” “This is a sharply focused yet engagingly written study of Charles Peirce’s nuanced position. Rosa Mayorga nicely balances her concern with the historical context and contemporary relevance of Peirce’s unique form of philosophical realism (in her neologism, ‘realicism’).” —Vincent Colapietro, Pennsylvania State University Charles Sanders Peirce, the founder of pragmatism, was convinced that metaphysics The Metaphysics of Charles Sanders Peirce is not just of primary importance to philosophy but that it serves as the basis for all sciences. From Realism to “Realicism” is a unique critical study of Peirce’s metaphysics and his repeated insistence on the realism of the medieval schoolman as the key to understanding his own system. By tracing the problem of universals beginning with their Greek roots, Rosa Maria Perez-Teran Mayorga provides the necessary yet underrepresented background of moderate realism and Peirce’s eventual revision of metaphysics. This book examines Peirce’s definition of the “real,” his synechism, his idealism, and his “pragmaticism,” which are all related to his sense of realism. With strong analyses and references to Plato, Aristotle, and John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan friar known as a major proponent of scholastic realism, From Realism to “Realicism” is an insightful and intriguing book that will stimulate the minds of fellow philosophers and those interested in Charles Sanders Peirce. Rosa Maria Perez-Teran Mayorga is assistant professor of philosophy at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). For orders and information please contact the publisher Lexington Books A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-1558-9 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 ISBN-10: 0-7391-1558-8 Lanham, Maryland 20706 1-800-462-6420 www.lexingtonbooks.com Rosa Maria Perez-Teran Mayorga From Realism to "Realicism" From Realism to "Realicism" The Metaphysics of Charles Sanders Peirce Rosa Maria Perez-Teran Mayorga LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham Boulder New York Toronto Plymouth, UK LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, MD 20706 Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Copyright O 2007 by Lexington Books First paperback edition 2009 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The hardback edition of this book was previously cataloged by the Library of Congress as follows: Mayorga, Rosa Maria Perez-Teran, 1954- From realism to "realicism" : the metaphysics of Charles Sanders Peirce 1 Rosa Maria Perez-Teran Mayorga. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. 1. Peirce, Charles S. (Charles Sanders), 1839-1914.2. Metaphysics. I. Title. B945.P44M39 2007 1 10.92--&22 2006034407 ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-1557-2 (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-73 19-1557-X (cloth : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-7391-1558-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-7391-1558-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) eISBN-13: 978-0-7391-3257-9 eISBN-10: 0-7391-3257-1 Printed in the United States of America W-~hepaper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSUNIS0 239.48-1992. Dedication To my beloved family, friends, and mentors Contents List of Charts and Tables Preface Introduction Chapter 1 - The Problem of Universals: Back to the Past Chapter 2 - Duns Scotus Chapter 3 - Charles Peirce Conclusion Endnotes Bibliography Index About the Author vii List of Charts and Tables Chart 1-1 Table 1-1 Table 2-1 Table 3-1 Table 3-2 Table 3-3 Table 3-4 Preface The contemporary relevance of much of the work of Charles S. Peirce, the founder of Pragmatism, is readily acknowledged by many, both in and outside philosophy departments. Scholars in such diverse fields as linguistics, cognitive science, com- puter science (especially artificial intelligence), sociology, architecture, business and management, criminology, topology, to name a few, have revolutionized their disciplines by applying some of Peirce's ideas, especially his logic, semiotics, and the pragmatic maxim.' Few, however, including his fellow philosophers, take seriously his metaphysics: it is either dismissed as a curious oddity and extrane- ous to his really "important" work, or it is ignored altogether. One reason for this oversight is probably due to Peirce's own comments on the subject, referring to metaphysics as a "puny rickety and scrofulous ~cience."~Buta closer reading of Peirce reveals that his unfavorable comments are directed to what he considered to be the actual "backward state" of metaphysics, the result of the wrongheaded motives and the mistaken methods of many of those who engaged in it. However, instead of "jeering at metaphy~ics,"~like many are wont to do, Peirce proposes what today would be called a "reconstruction," from an "ontological" or "reli- gious" metaphysics4to a "scientific" or "cosmogenic" one. Contrary to many of his contemporaries (and indeed to many present-day philosophers) Peirce was convinced that metaphysics is not just of primary importance to philosophy, but that it serves as the basis of all sciences as well. Central to this view is Peirce's repeated insistence on the realism of the medieval schoolmen as the key to under- standing his own system. Fewer, still, have undertaken the task of turning back to the past in order to understand Peirce's self-proclaimed affinity with scholastic philosophy. But while Peirce's system cannot be fully appreciated in isolation from his metaphysics, his metaphysics cannot be understood if segregated from Duns Scotus's realism. It is the purpose of this book to contribute to an understanding of Peirce's metaphys- ics, and consequently to a better understanding of his entire system, in the context xii Preface of his Scotistic realism. In this goal, I follow the path first marked by John Boler in his 1963 seminal work Charles Peirce and Scholastic Realism. My fascination with Peirce's Scotistic realism and its relevance to the rest of his philosophy led to my doctoral dissertation, and has been the central focus of my research, as evidenced by this work. I do not presume to offer, however, any new contribution to the problem of universals. My purpose in these chapters is to provide the necessary background for an understanding of scholastic real- ism, which, I claim, is essential for a genuine understanding of Peirce. While no longer controversial, this claim is nevertheless underrepresented in the literature; this work is meant to add to the work of those few who have undertaken the task of exploring this scholastic connection. This work is unlike previous efforts in the sense that I begin by tracing the problem of universals since its beginnings, (Chapter One) through Scotus's solution (Chapter Wo), and then its manifesta- tion in Peirce (Chapter Three). Though not an exhaustive account of all of Peirce's metaphysics (that would involve more than one volume!), it is my humble ex- pectation, however, that this work will provide new insights for those with an interest in Peirce, be they philosophers (or students of philosophy), scholars in other fields, or those who simply want to know more about America's greatest philosopher. Introduction In Charles Peirce: From Pragmatism to Pragmaticism, Karl Otto Ape1 traces the development of Peirce's famous doctrine from its infancy in Peirce's early college years to its later mature conception dubbed by Peirce himself as "pragmaticism" (in order to mark the difference with the other misguided "pragmatisms" that proliferated as the result of misunderstanding his own). In a parallel way, I pro- pose to trace the development of Peirce's realism from its early roots in scholastic realism, to its eventual revision and consequent rift with Scotus's position, which I call Peirce's "realicism." The place to start in this journey is with the origin of the problem of universals. The problem of universals, that is, the problem of determining what kind of ontological status universals have, has been a source of fascination and frustration for philosophers for more than two thousand years. What are universals? Simply put, they are the general concepts (or ideas or words) we develop in order to make sense of the world around us. If we want to claim to have knowledge of the world as it truly is, we need to determine exactly what kinds of things our concepts are and the connection they have with the world at large. The problem of universals deals with trying to determine the nature of these concepts, and consequently, the nature of their connection with the world. By the 1300s, the problem had become a central one for philosophy. This was the time of John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan monk from Scotland, otherwise known as "The Subtle Doctor" because of the subtlety and profundity of his work.
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