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CP 5.484. Yet this does not quite tell us just what the nature is of the essential effect upon the interpreter, brought about by the semio'sis of the sign, which constitutes the logical interpretant. (It is important to understand what I mean by semiosis. All dynamical action, or action of brute force, physical or psychical, either takes place between two subjects [whether they react equally upon each other, or one is agent and the other patient, entirely or partially] or at any rate is a resultant of such actions between pairs. But by "semiosis" I mean, on the contrary, an action, or influence, which is, or involves, a coöperation of three subjects, such as a sign, its object, and its interpretant, this tri-relative influence not being in any way resolvable into actions between pairs. {Sémeiösis} in Greek of the Roman period, as early as Cicero's time, if I remember rightly, meant the action of almost any kind of sign; and my definition confers on anything that so acts the title of a "sign.") END
This is triadic thinking. Let's not forget that Peirce believes thought is in signs. I am tempted to suggest that binary transactions are of a different order than thinking that involves three elements -- and that this triadic process is required for semiosis to be involved. It would suit me to believe, as I have come to sense, that consciousness is of a communicative and universal character. It is what happens when we think triadically. Binary thinking is fundamentally subhuman.
For one to be a triadic thinker involves a discipline which is not unlike kriya yoga. The likeness is in the daily devotion of time and the largely solitary process of examining signs ethically and aesthetically. There are major differences. In the urban West I favor the notion of walking and practice that follows a basic process that begins with the revolutionary Lord's Prayer and continues with a linking of what is on our mind to tolerance, helpfulness and democracy. Followed by the effort to reach truth and beauty via conversation with one taken to be an inner friend or guide.
I am actually more and more inclined to a DIY approach. I have no desire to teach triadic thinking! It is too rich and varied to be reducible to any fixed form. At the same time it does have the capacity to develop over years into a rich way of life that can be said to contain enlightenment as one's enfolding within Unconditional Love -- what Peirce meant by giving a place in his philosophy to agape or the agapaic.
This is triadic thinking. Let's not forget that Peirce believes thought is in signs. I am tempted to suggest that binary transactions are of a different order than thinking that involves three elements -- and that this triadic process is required for semiosis to be involved. It would suit me to believe, as I have come to sense, that consciousness is of a communicative and universal character. It is what happens when we think triadically. Binary thinking is fundamentally subhuman.
For one to be a triadic thinker involves a discipline which is not unlike kriya yoga. The likeness is in the daily devotion of time and the largely solitary process of examining signs ethically and aesthetically. There are major differences. In the urban West I favor the notion of walking and practice that follows a basic process that begins with the revolutionary Lord's Prayer and continues with a linking of what is on our mind to tolerance, helpfulness and democracy. Followed by the effort to reach truth and beauty via conversation with one taken to be an inner friend or guide.
I am actually more and more inclined to a DIY approach. I have no desire to teach triadic thinking! It is too rich and varied to be reducible to any fixed form. At the same time it does have the capacity to develop over years into a rich way of life that can be said to contain enlightenment as one's enfolding within Unconditional Love -- what Peirce meant by giving a place in his philosophy to agape or the agapaic.
