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Signifying Nature: Semeiosis As the Foundation of Post-Critical Cosmology in Charles S Signifying Nature: Semeiosis as the Foundation of Post-Critical Cosmology in Charles S. Peirce A thesis submitted to Goldsmiths University of London in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Chrysoula Sdrolia April 2014 Declaration of Authorship I, Chrysoula Sdrolia, declare that the thesis entitled Signifying Nature: Semeiosis as the Foundation of Post-Critical Cosmology in Charles S. Peirce and the work presented in the thesis are both my own, and have been generated by me as the result of my own original research. I confirm that: • this work was done wholly or mainly while in candidature for a research degree at this University; • where any part of this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree or any other qualification at this University or any other institution, this has been clearly stated; • where I have consulted the published work or others, this is always clearly attributed; • where I have quoted the work of others, the source is always given. With the exception of such quotations, this thesis is entirely my own work; • I have acknowledged all main sources of help; • Where the thesis is based on work done by myself jointly with others, I have made clear exactly what was done by others and what I have contributed myself; • none of this work has been published before submission. Signed: Date: To my dear parents Acknowledgements I am grateful to the Greek State Scholarship Foundation (IKY) for having funded this thesis and especially to Ms. Chryssanna Metaxa for her kind assistance all these years. Of all the people, whose companionship and support have made this work possible, I first of all wish to thank my parents for having taught me to stand by my convictions, for instilling in me the love of learning, and for their unflinching faith in my abilities when I doubted myself. In the academic sphere, where I had the chance to develop this love for learning, I am thankful for all the people I met and spoke to in Goldsmiths, whose perspectives helped me shape my own. In particular, many thanks are due to Luciana Parisi for her mentorship, instruction and scrutiny and to Andrew Goffey for his commentary. I want to thank Mark Bishop for his friendship and encouragement and Mohammad Majid al-Rifaie for his invaluable help in constructing the diagrams included in this work. Special thanks are due to Jean-Claude Dumoncel for having so generously shared his extraordinary depth of knowledge and for having graced me with his insight on numerous occasions and to Catherine Malabou, whose inspirational seminars enriched my intellectual landscape in most unexpected ways. I also wish to thank my sister for her affectionate patience, as well as all my peers and friends whose advice, trust, and kindness made this journey worthwhile. My gratitude goes to Marjorie, Nicolas, Craig, Vijak, Habib, Manjot, Benedikt, Damini. My dear Athina, this circle would have never opened without your positive energy, sobriety, and good humour. Finally, Masa, none of this would be possible without you. Thank you all. Abstract This thesis presents a reading of Charles Sanders Peirce’s logic of semeiosis as the foundation of a pragmatist cosmological speculation. For the benefit of a systematic and chronologically substantiated approach, the elements of this logic are first recovered through a special focus on Peirce’s early and largely unexamined metaphysical manuscripts. Such a focus primarily serves the purpose of situating the genesis of semeiotics within a distinctly post-critical problematic. Beginning with an investigation of the core tenets of Kantian and German Idealist thought, the first part proposes that semeiotic logic emerges as a consistent effort to return the sign to Nature by relieving the schism between infinity and finitude. It is shown that the various aspects of Peirce’s original inspiration – including his logical method, the novel conception of continuity, and the theory of feeling – systematically converge on the point of confronting reason with its unconditioned or un-conscious ground, thus aiming to render possible an experiential metaphysics of the Idea as part of a self-expressive Nature. Picking up the results of this initial exploration, the second part then proceeds to trace the development of Peirce’s early foundational concerns into his mature doctrine of the Categories, which is reconstructed as an evolutionary cosmology of the sign. Such a metaphysics of cosmic semeiosis, which is found to simultaneously require and to be powered by a pragmatic-experimental mode of thought, is revealed as the consistent thread that runs through Peirce’s opus from his early musings to his mature philosophy. This thesis therefore advances the argument, propounded by a number of scholars, of the fundamental integrity of Peirce’s thought, against its standard and rather persistent division into distinct metaphysical and logical components. Finally, it is argued that the reconstruction, presented in this work, of Peirce’s metaphysics is to be understood as a powerful vantage point from which to think of the possibilities of a contemporary cosmological practice of semeiosis. Table of Contents Index of References and Abbreviations ..................................................................... 7 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 10 Part 1: Critique of the Anthropological Sign .......................................................... 25 Chapter 1: Between (Post-)Kantianism and Psychologism ................................... 48 1. The Kantian Impact ............................................................................................. 48 2. After Transcendental Logic ................................................................................. 58 3. From Idealism to Psychologism .......................................................................... 75 Chapter 2: The Uncritical Route to Synthesis ........................................................ 89 1. What Transcendentalism? .................................................................................... 89 2. Germinal Continuity, or the Thing at the Limit ................................................. 109 2.a. Peirce’s Explorations of Continuity ............................................................ 114 2.b. The First Impression Revisited ................................................................... 133 Part 2: Cosmic Signification ................................................................................... 146 Chapter 3: The Practice of Logic ........................................................................... 163 1. The Expressive Logos ....................................................................................... 163 2. The Formula of Thought and Nature ................................................................. 178 3. A Practicing Intuition ........................................................................................ 200 Chapter 4: Renaturalising Representation ........................................................... 214 1. Representation, or the Colour of a Flower ........................................................ 214 2. ‘Beware of a Syllogism’ .................................................................................... 228 3. The Experience of Hypothesis, or the Abductive ‘Residue of Dreaminess’ ..... 246 3.a. Reopening the Question of Practice ........................................................... 258 4. The Semeiotic Impulse ...................................................................................... 261 4. a. The Evolving Sign ..................................................................................... 277 Chapter 5: Creative Semeiosis ................................................................................ 284 1. An, Other, Medium; Chance, Necessity, Love .................................................. 284 2. Our Glassy Essence, Our Godly Essence .......................................................... 303 Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 319 Bibliography ............................................................................................................. 322 Appendix ................................................................................................................... 334 1. Ilustration of Poincaré Disc Model of Ultra-Parallel Lines ............................... 334 2. Peirce’s Measurement of Time and the Three Spirals ....................................... 334 7 Index of References and Abbreviations Frequently quoted works are cited directly in the text. All references are to original texts. The editions and abbreviations used are the following: Works by Charles S. Peirce CP Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, Vols. I-VIII. Edited by Charles Hartshorne, Paul Weiss, A.W. Burks. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931, 1958. References are by volume and paragraph number. For example, (CP 1.2) refers to volume 1, paragraph 2. CD The Century Dictionary. Edited by William D. Whitney. New York: The Century Company, 1896. EP The Essential Peirce. Vols. I & II. Edited by Nathan Houser, Christian Kloesel, and Jonathan R. Eller. Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1992-1998. MS The Charles S. Peirce Papers microfilm edition (Harvard University Library, Photographic Service,
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