Speculative Grammar Research Articles

No Mode of Being, No Mode of Signifying

Abstract The Destructions of the Modes of Signifying (henceforth: dms) is an anonymous fourteenth-century polemic against modist speculative grammar (grammatica speculativa). Wielding Ockhamist logic and metaphysics, the dms repeatedly attacks the very root of modism: the claim that the grammatical features of language are grounded in the metaphysical properties of the world. I call this the Modist Correspondence Thesis (henceforth: mct). In its most general form, mct says that every mode of signifying exhibited by an utterance corresponds to a mode of being exhibited by a thing. The Emptiness Argument of the dms tries to show that mct fails to accommodate certain special cases, such as privative, fictitious, and divine utterances, like ‘blindness’ (caecitas), ‘chimera’ (chimaera), and ‘deity’ (deitas). The modist Thomas of Erfurt directly addresses the Emptiness Argument, anticipating the anti-modist criticisms present in the dms. In doing so, he points the way to alternative formulations of mct that are immune to those criticisms.

Reading the Universe of Signs Well: Prospects for Partnering Theosemiotic with a Christian Semiotic Theology

Reading the Universe of Signs <i>Well</i>: Prospects for Partnering Theosemiotic with a Christian Semiotic Theology

Disquieting Analogies: Benjamin and Heidegger on Medieval Speculative Grammar

This article examines Walter Benjamin's engagement with Martin Heidegger's postdoctoral thesis on the Scholastic philosophers Duns Scotus and Thomas of Erfurt. I argue that Benjamin's fragment “Wenn nach der Theorie des Duns Scotus” from the Winter of 1920–21 contains a direct response to Heidegger's thesis, marking the difference between their philosophies of language as well as a vital shift in Benjamin's critical project. After studying Heidegger's book, Benjamin abandons the plan to work on Scholastic analogies, focusing instead on allegory in Baroque mourning plays. This shift motivated Benjamin to distinguish his non‐hierarchical and anti‐anthropocentric understanding of language further from Heidegger's ontological view, which adheres, despite its non‐instrumental character, to an authoritative relationship between language and being.

LOGIC OF THE FUTURE: WRITINGS ON EXISTENTIAL GRAPHS. VOLUME 1: HISTORY AND APPLICATIONS, EDITED BY AHTI PIETARINEN

Reviewed by: Logic of the Future: Writings on Existential Graphs. Volume 1: History and Applications ed. by Ahti Pietarinen Frederik Stjernfelt Edited by Ahti Pietarinen Logic of the Future: Writings on Existential Graphs. Volume 1: History and Applications Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2020, 664 pp. including name and keyword indexes To Peirce scholars and other aficionados of logic, semiotics, and pragmatism, 2017 brought the great news of Bellucci’s Speculative Grammar book, providing the eye-opening first detailed chronological overview over Peirce’s career-length developing of his semiotics. Now, the first volume of Ahti Pietarinen’s long-awaited three-volume publication of the totality of Peirce’s writings on his mature logic representation system known as Existential Graphs (EGs) not only gives us a plethora of hitherto unpublished Peirce papers but also a new and in many ways surprising view into the origin and development of this important fruit of Peirce’s last, creative philosophical burst taking its beginning around 1896, famously to peak in his annus mirabilis of 1903. Ahti Pietarinen has spent an admirable effort not only to find, collect and transcribe the enormous amount of Peirce’s EG writings, but also to frame and comment the results in a planned three-volume, 2000-pages annotated edition named Logic of the Future (LoF). The book is simultaneously the first volume of a new de Gruyter series “Peirceana”, edited by Francesco Bellucci and Ahti Pietarinen. The title has been chosen from a 1909 letter to William James in which Peirce describes the EG system and exclaims: “This ought to be The Logic of the Future”. Now, the first volume of this gargantuan work has appeared, subtitled “History and Applications”. A brief general introduction presents the layout of the whole planned edition, while another brief intro takes the uninitiated reader into the central issues of Existential Graphs. The tentative principle of selection of texts is ambitious: to be [End Page 114] “comprehensive”, that is, publishing the majority of the some 5000 ms. pages in which Peirce address EGs, including a vast amount of alternate text versions presented as footnotes and appendices to texts presented. A second principle is the overall chronological structure of the three volumes. A third is that texts already published (in the CP, in the NEM, or elsewhere) are left out. The two latter criteria, however, are rules of thumbs not rigorously followed. This appears from the detailed 100-pages introduction to the present volume, which goes through each of the volume’s 28 selected texts and text collections from Peirce’s writings, spanning the period from 1895 to 1911. The selection is not strictly chronological, however, which is partially a result of the overall disposition of all of the three volumes. In a certain sense, the central volume of the whole project is that of volume two, still to appear, to cover Peirce’s intense 1903 developments and presentations of the EGs in the “Logical Tracts” and the “Lowell Lectures”, each of which are planned to fill one subvolume of Logic of the Future volume two. The third and final volume, “Pragmaticism and Correspondence” then, is planned to contain post-1903 EG writings related to Peirce’s Pragmaticism paper series in the Monist, in which Peirce puts the EGs to use in his mature arguments for pragmatism if not decidedly a proof of pragmatism—as well as Peirce’s presentation and discussion of the EGs in lengthy correspondence with colleagues. These selection choices leave for the first volume primarily a batch of central texts documenting the early development of the EGs from 1896–98, forming the epicenter of the present volume. A bit surprisingly, this is flanked by two other batches of texts. First, texts 1–4, a small selection of philosophy-of-logic papers, most of them late, around 1910; Pietarinen’s argument is that these texts present Peirce’s most clarified general view of logic, as a preparation to the in medias res-texts of 1896. It appears as a further selection criterion in addition to the ones quoted, that of serving a novice reader with some easily accessible reading to begin with. They are mainly brief, late (1910...

Peirce’s Speculative Grammar: Logic as Semiotics

Cognitio é uma revista de filosofia com foco em temas relacionados principalmente ao Pragmatismo clássico. Editada pelo Centro de Estudos de Pragmatismo do Programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Filosofia, da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP).

Semeiotic completeness in the theory of signs

AbstractPeirce aspired for the completeness of his logiccumthe theory of signs in his 1903 Lowell Lectures and other late manuscripts. Semeiotic completeness states that everything that is a consequence in logical critic is derivable in speculative grammar. The present paper exposes the reasons why Peirce would fall short of establishing semeiotic completeness and thus why he would not continue seeking a perfect match between the theories of grammar and critic. Some alternative notions are then proposed.

Diagrammatic relations of probative strength and inferential progression through semiotics

AbstractThe purpose of this article is to explore the concept of diagram and diagrammatic reasoning involving semiotics in its three branches and not only in speculative grammar. We will concentrate on the apprehension of the movement of reasoning, which diagrammatically begins with speculative grammar, runs through critical logic, and consolidates at methodeutics. We seek to apply the trichotomic logic of Peirce to list the modes of reasoning with diagrams. Our intention is to move away from the categorization as taxonomy, and try to understand how sign classes can be used in the inferential process. Thus, considering a possible relationship between the hypoicon, the three classes of iconic signs in the system of ten classes of signs, and the methods of inference, we suggest three subclasses of diagrams in inferential terms that may offer a grading system, which would present degrees of accuracy or probative capacity.

Confidence through the semiotic process

Abstract Peirce’s semiotics is a formal doctrine of signs. As such, semiotics “would be concerned, in part, to determine the conditions for counting anything as true” (Liszka 1996: 2). Sometimes, semiotics is reduced to its first branch, speculative grammar, which concerns the classification of signs. However, critic and methodeutic are fundamental to guarantee the accuracy of the semiotic process. Critic gives “the conditions which determine the reasoning to be secure” (c.1902, CP 2.1) and methodeutic is the “study of the necessary conditions of the transmission of meaning by signs from mind to mind” (c.1897, CP 1.444). When we observe the system of sixty-six sign classes, we can find a method that provides confidence in the reasoning process. That means we can find classes of signs that represent critic and methodeutic in this system. The set of symbolic signs are the core of this process. In this paper, I will examine the interpretants of symbolic signs in order to describe the production of interpretants that increase the level of confidence in reasoning, contributing to the evolution of thought. The system of sixty-six sign classes provides a more complex set of interpretants, which might show the relation between the three branches of semiotics.

Peirce on assertion and other speech acts

Abstract This paper offers a selective but reasonably representative reconstruction of the evolution of Peirce’s “speech acts theory” across different, consecutive versions of speculative grammar. It examines Peirce’s pre-1903 theory of assertion, the Syllabus (1903) and “Καινὰ στοιχεῖα” (c. 1904), and reconstructs Peirce’s speech-act-oriented semiotic classifications after 1904.

Peirce’s Speculative Grammar: Logic as Semiotics by Francesco Bellucci

Peirce’s Speculative Grammar: Logic as Semiotics by Francesco Bellucci

A Peirce for the 21st century

Review of Peirce’s Speculative Grammar: Logic as Semiotics by Francesco Bellucci. New York, London: Routledge, 2017, 388 pages.

Imagem cinematográfica e pensamento: imagem-afeção na confluência das teorias de Peirce e Deleuze

Este artigo apresenta resultados de pesquisa, que trata da relação entre pensamento e imagem cinematográfica, considerando-se as teorias elaboradas por Gilles Deleuze, na confluência com as de Charles Sanders Peirce. Entre as modalidades de imagem-movimento, conceito desenvolvido por Deleuze no livro A Imagem-movimento Cinema 1, neste artigo, prioriza-se a imagem-afeção. Com o propósito de compreender tal conceito e explicitar o papel deste no pensamento, trata-se, em linhas gerais, do conceito de imagem-movimento e de suas divisões, mas acopladas às categorias fenomenológicas peirceanas; em seguida, classifica-se a imagem-afeção, a partir de definições e da taxionomia advindas da gramática especulativa, um dos ramos da semiótica ou lógica desenvolvida por Peirce, destacando-se os diversos tipos de ícone. A importância deste artigo está em colocar em evidência o potencial das teorias peirceanas, que fluem com as deleuzeanas, para a compreensão do pensamento, ou de imagens em movimento.

Speculative rhetoric, methodeutic, and Peirce’s hexadic sign-systems

Abstract By 1903 Peirce had defined logic broadly as a “Philosophy of Representation,” an over-arching, organically organized cenoscopic science formed of speculative grammar, critic, and speculative rhetoric. Corresponding respectively to the three trichotomies of the sign that he had established at this time, the three branches of the grand logic concerned definitions of the sign, inquiry into the relation between sign and object and, finally, inquiry into the relation between sign and interpretant. In this latter case he hesitated between the labels “speculative rhetoric” and “methodeutic.” Also noticeable at this time is a hesitation concerning the scope of such an inquiry: the “logical study of the theory of inquiry” as opposed to “the doctrine of the general conditions of the reference of Symbols and other Signs to the Interpretants which they aim to determine,” a conception of logic reminiscent of the traditional art of persuasion. This polarity seems to have been confirmed in the 1904 paper “Ideas, Stray or Stolen about Scientific Writing” with its reference to the efficient written communication of the scientist’s results. It shows Peirce not so much adapting his speculative rhetoric to the traditional notion as explaining how the “abstract” cenoscopic science might help to organize the empirical idioscopic rhetorical sciences by determining three modes of specialization each with its specific divisions. However, in a letter to Lady Welby in October of that same year he introduced an initial hexadic sign-system which, following the earlier triadic classification, was composed of three supplementary relational criteria involving the sign respectively with its immediate object, its immediate interpretant, and its dynamic interpretant, all based on the more complex hexadic conception of semiosis announced in a letter to lady Welby dated December 23, 1908. It is noteworthy that the way the sign is classified with respect to the three interpretants in the 1904 letter corresponds closely to aspects of the modes of specialization described in the earlier paper. In 1906 he expressed his preference for the term “methodeutic” and its essentially methodological scope: as late as 1911, for example, he continued to define the third branch of logic as showing “how to conduct an inquiry.” Moreover, both methodeutic and the former over-arching philosophy of representation seem to have figured less prominently in his later theoretical preoccupations. Peirce may have been too involved in developing his Graphs and the hexadic and, ultimately, decadic systems of semiotic classification to define fully a “method of methods.” He might, too, have rejected the label “rhetoric” as being too close to the traditional art of persuasion whose three modes of specialization he had described in 1904. Alternatively, it is possible that his evolving understanding of the three interpretants absorbed any lingering rhetorical complexion his theory of scientific methodology may have had, and rendered it redundant in this more complex and comprehensive conception of semiosis. It is this latter possibility that the paper seeks to examine.

Reading Heidegger, Reading Scotus

The young Heidegger finds in his early reading of Duns Scotus and Thomas of Erfurt suggestions from medieval speculative grammar for the solution to the category problem: the limited nature of the Aristotelian ten categories, and how such categories, in their application to only one domain of being, leave out the fore-theoretical sense of life. The elaboration of the fore-theoretical categories of being-in-the-world will occupy Heidegger in the writing of Being and Time. A reading of Heidegger’s Die Kategorien und Bedeutungslehre Duns Scotus reveals not only the origins of the Dasein Analytic in medieval thought but also how Heidegger was from the very beginning on the search for an interpretation of life without God. For manifestly missing from his reading of Scotus is any interpretation of ens infinitum, or the being of God and its relation to finite being.

Os diagramas de C. S. Peirce para as dez classes de signos

Uma seção da Gramática Especulativa de C.S.Peirce - Dez classes de signos - recebeu, a partir de 1903, um importante tratamento diagramático. Neste artigo, são apresentados e discutidos dois diagramas desenvolvidos por Peirce para as dez classes, incluindo esboços desses modelos.

Peircean Semiotics and Subject Indexing: Contributions of Speculative Grammar and Pure Logic

KO KNOWLEDGE ORGANIZATION , Seite 225 - 241

Speculative Grammar and Stoic Language Theory in Medieval Allegorical Narrative from Prudentius to Alan of Lille

Speculative Grammar and Stoic Language Theory in Medieval Allegorical Narrative from Prudentius to Alan of Lille

Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300–1475 (review)

Reviewed by: Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300–1475 Peter Weeda Copeland, Rita and Ineke Sluiter, eds, Medieval Grammar and Rhetoric: Language Arts and Literary Theory, AD 300–1475, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2010; hardback; pp. 992; R.R.P. US$175.00, £95.00; ISBN 9780198183419. The classical definition of grammatica was ‘the art of interpreting the poets and other writers and the principles for speaking and writing correctly’. Its purpose was to allow students to speak and write with great eloquence, but grammatica was only the beginning of literacy. Any study of Latin learning and its effects on other cultures and linguistic communities must also include a treatment of rhetoric. Ancient rhetoric supplied a vast range of formal rules, strategies, and techniques for oral argument that were initially designed for the courtroom but eventually permeated into all manner of public discourse. By the antique period it was already being translated into a practice for litteratura (written discourse). The tradition of the grammaticus remained relatively unchanged from the antique period until c. 1100, but a change ensued in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that saw ancient methods truncated to concise, easily manageable units of pedagogy and versified for easier memorization. In this volume, editors Rita Copeland and Ineke Sluiter have supplied selections from over fifty medieval treatises and commentaries on rhetoric and grammar in English translation, many of which have never been translated before. After a clearly written and coherent General Introduction, the editors structure the volume by first dividing it into six sections reflecting the applications, developments, and sub-traditions of these language arts, particularly post-1100, and then by ordering the texts chronologically. Each section has its own Introduction outlining the historical context of the texts, and the similarities and differences between them. Each text is also presented with further introductory headnotes and details of either the original Latin edition that has been translated or the translation they are reprinting. Although the volume considers developmental and sub-traditional aspects in the history of grammar, certain specializations are not traced, particularly the ars dictaminis (letter writing) and the ars praedicandi (preaching), the incorporation of grammar into philosophical discourse which sought to develop the belief that language mirrored the reality of the physical world (referred to as speculative (or ‘mirror’) grammar), and the development of dialectic which was classified with grammar and rhetoric as part of the trivium. Part I, ‘Arts of language, 300–950’, begins with excerpts from the oldest extant verse grammar, that of Terentianus Maurus’s De Litteris and De Syllabis. [End Page 182] Unfortunately, and somewhat unhelpfully, the early monuments of grammar and rhetoric – Aelius Donatus, Victorinus, Martianus Capella, Priscian, and Boethius – are then rather hastily covered. The arrangement of material in this section requires readers new to the field of ancient and medieval grammatical and rhetorical studies to connect far too many theoretical and technical dots. On occasion, the reader must juggle numerous pages and texts at once in order to capture a clear understanding of a matter, doctrine, or practice. The Introduction to the part offers a neat historical summary, but is certainly not substantial enough to cover this issue. Part II, ‘Dossiers on the ablative absolute and etymology’, is a different matter as it charts the developments of both from the third to the fourteenth centuries. The introductions to each are crisp and informative, and the excerpts are well linked to produce a more coherent teaching; one wonders why single subject units were not also used to organize Part I. That said, the editors appear to be on surer footing as the book progresses and the periods become more constricted. Part III, ‘Sciences and curricula of language in the twelfth century’, presents ten samples beginning with commentaries on Priscian’s Institutiones. It includes excerpts from William of Conches’s major work, Philosophia Mundi, and his tract on grammar appended to this work, generous samples from Rupert of Deutz, Thierry of Chartres, and Dominicus Gundissalinus, and ends with Alexander Neckam’s list of textbooks for students of the liberal arts found in his Sacerdos ad Altare (c. 1210). Because of the narrowing of the period, the excerpts form...

Vita Scoti

Franciscan Studies 60 (2002) 291 VITA SCOTI1 In his 1994 Gifford Lectures, Professor Alexander Broadie eloquently stated that he believed that John Duns Scotus was Scotland’s greatest philosopher.2 The claim may appear a bit brash when other learned Scots are called to mind. Indeed, scholars like David Hume, Thomas Carlyle, and Thomas Reid have become common names around university philosophy departments. Yet, there are good reasons to suspect that Professor Broadie may be right. First, Duns Scotus’ work has been celebrated by a first rate group of scholars. Modern giants like Charles Sanders Pierce and Martin Heidegger, for example, have found Scotus to be one of the most intellectually stimulating individuals ever to set quill to paper.3 Second, Scotus has had a remarkable effect on the popular culture in every age since the fourteenth century. For instance, in the sixteenth century, the attraction was so great that Thomas Cromwell was compelled to order that Holy Scriptures be explained literally and not according to Scotus.4 Also around this same period the term “dunce” was coined as a slur aimed at Duns’ followers. What other philosopher bears such an honour? By the nineteenth century Scotus was being immortalised in the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. Finally, in our own age, Teilhard de Chardin has commented that in Scotus we have the philosopher-theologian of the future – a remark that will no doubt continue to hold true in the next millennium.5 1 Rega Wood, Robert Andrews and the late Father Gedeon Gál developed the general outline for this biography. Any errors that exist in this presentation, however, are mine. 2 A. Broadie, The Shadow of Scotus. Philosophy and Faith in Pre-Reformation Scotland, (Edinburgh 1995) 1. 3 C.S. Pierce, The Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Pierce, VIII, ed. A. Burks, (Cambridge 1958). For a fairly complete study concerning Scotus’ influence on Pierce see, J. Boler, Charles Peirce and Scholastic Realism: A Study of Peirce’s Relation to John Duns Scotus, (Seattle, 1963). Heidegger, M. Traite des Categories et de la signification chez Duns Scotus, trans. F. Gaborian, (Paris 1970). The first part of this work is a study of a speculative grammar that was wrongly attributed to Duns Scotus. In 1922, Martin Grabmann discovered that the grammar is properly ascribed to Thomas of Erfurt. See M. Grabmann, “De Thoma Erfordiensi Auctoree Grammaticae Quae Ioanni Duns Scoto,” Archivum Franciscanum Historicum 15 (1922): 273-7. 4 D.E. Sharp, Franciscan Philosophy at Oxford (London 1930) 283. 5 G.M. Allegra, My Conversations with Teilhard de Chardin on the Primacy of Christ. Peking, 1942-1945, trans. B.M. Bonansea (Chicago 1971) 92. J. A. SHEPPARD 292 Yet, despite the greatness of Duns Scotus, historians are still haunted by an observation that Professor Ernest Renan made over one hundred years ago. He noted that there is perhaps no other great medieval master whose life is so little known as that of John Duns Scotus.6 Indeed, it seems that what is known about Scotus can be boiled down to an excellent capsule biography such as those written by Jerome Brown and H.J. Werner.7 This is not meant to imply that an extended treatment of Scotus’ life is unnecessary. There are, in fact, several good studies that are focused on the life of John Duns Scotus and each one offers some new evidence, hint, or insight that helps to fill the gaps in our knowledge of who this remarkable friar was. The information comes slowly, however. When Professor A.G. Little wrote his summation of the research to date in 1932, it took some thirty more years of research from all quarters before Father Charles Balic wrote his comprehensive study in 1966. There is still a long way to go in accounting for all forty-two years of Scotus’ life. Nevertheless, new tidbits about Scotus are constantly being found as scholars continue to prepare critical editions of his writings. In the work that follows, a few of those insights are introduced. The larger reason behind this study, however, is to revisit some of the generally accepted theories about Scotus’ life. The story of John Duns Scotus is not a...

Les critères de classement des catégories grammaticales - une perspective diachronique

This paper deals with different ways of classifying grammatical categories, from the antiquity to the present. The author refers to the works of Aristotle as well as to ideas of American and European structural grammarians. A large part of this article is devoted to an explication of the medieval Modistes theory of speculative grammar. This paper is also concerned with the opposition between grammatical and logical criteria.