Cf: Peirce’s 1870 “Logic of Relatives” • Comment 10.11
Peirce’s 1870 “Logic of Relatives” • Comment 10.11
https://oeis.org/wiki/Peirce%27s_1870_Logic_Of_Relatives_%E2%80%A2_Part_1#C…
All,
Let us return to the point where we left off unpacking the contents of CP 3.73.
Here Peirce remarks that the comma operator can be iterated at will.
<QUOTE CSP:>
In point of fact, since a comma may be added in this way to any
relative term, it may be added to one of these very relatives
formed by a comma, and thus by the addition of two commas an
absolute term becomes a relative of two correlates.
So m,,b,r interpreted like goh means a man that is a rich individual
and is a black [person] that is that rich individual. But this has
no other meaning than m,b,r or a man that is a black [person] that
is rich.
Thus we see that, after one comma is added, the addition of another
does not change the meaning at all, so that whatever has one comma
after it must be regarded as having an infinite number.
(Peirce, CP 3.73)
https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2014/02/17/peirces-1870-logic-of-relatives-s…
</QUOTE>
Again, let’s check whether this makes sense on the stage of our small but
dramatic model. Let’s say Desdemona and Othello are rich and, among the
persons of the play, only they. On this premiss we obtain a sample of
absolute terms sufficiently ample to work through Peirce’s example.
Display 1. Absolute Terms
https://inquiryintoinquiry.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/lor-1870-comment-10.…
One application of the comma operator yields the following dyadic relatives.
Display 2. Dyadic Relatives
https://inquiryintoinquiry.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/lor-1870-comment-10.…
Another application of the comma operator generates the following triadic relatives.
Display 3. Triadic Relatives
https://inquiryintoinquiry.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/lor-1870-comment-10.…
Assuming the associativity of multiplication among dyadic relatives,
the product m,b,r may be computed by a brute force method to yield
the following result.
Display 4. m,b,r = O
https://inquiryintoinquiry.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/lor-1870-comment-10.…
This says that a man that is black that is rich is Othello,
which is true on the premisses of our present universe of
discourse.
Following the standard associative combinations of goh, the product
m,,b,r is multiplied out along the following lines, where the trinomials
of the form (X:Y:Z)(Y:Z)(Z) are the only ones producing a non‑null result,
namely, (X:Y:Z)(Y:Z)(Z) = X.
Display 5. m,,b,r = O
https://inquiryintoinquiry.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/lor-1870-comment-10.…
So we have that m,,b,r = m,b,r.
In closing, observe how the teridentity relation has turned up again
in this context, as the second comma‑ing of the universal term itself.
Display 6. Teridentity 1,,
https://inquiryintoinquiry.files.wordpress.com/2022/02/lor-1870-comment-10.…
Regards,
Jon