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PEIRCE-L Digest 1298 -- February 15-16, 1998
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From PEIRCE-L Forum, Jan 5, 1998, [name of author of message],
"re: Peirce on Teleology"
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Topics covered in this issue include:
1) Tom Anderson's death
by joseph.ransdell[…]yahoo.com (ransdell, joseph m.)
2) Re: Tom Anderson's death
by patcop[…]bo.nettuno.it (Patrick J. Coppock)
3) Re: Tom Anderson's death
by BugDaddy[…]cris.com (BugDaddy)
4) Re: a question about LISP and recursion ... abduction
by Douglas Moore
5) Re: Tom Anderson's death
by Thomas.Riese[…]t-online.de (Thomas Riese)
6) Re: Tom Anderson's death
by Joseph Ransdell
7) Re: Porphyry: On Aristotle's Categories/The New List (4)
by BugDaddy[…]cris.com (BugDaddy)
8) Re: Tom Anderson's death
by "H.G.CALLAWAY"
9) Re: Tom Anderson's death
by Hugo Fjelsted Alroe
10) Re: Tom Anderson's death
by Cathy Legg
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Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 08:42:55 -0600
From: joseph.ransdell[…]yahoo.com (ransdell, joseph m.)
To: peirce-l
Subject: Tom Anderson's death
Message-ID: <003701bd3a20$019d6a60$43a432ce[…]ransdell.door.net>
I received a message yesterday from Mark Weisz, a friend of Tom
Anderson, who informed me of Tom's death on February 9th of a heart
attack and who joined the peirce-l list for the purpose of writing a
notice of this to the list in general. I won't say more until Mark has
time to compose and distribute his own message on this, and I mention it
myself now only because other notices of it -- I just received one from
Andy Loewy -- are being forwarded to me.
With a saddened heart,
Joe Ransdell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joseph Ransdell or <>
Department of Philosophy, Texas Tech University, Lubbock TX 79409
Area Code 806: 742-3158 office 797-2592 home 742-0730 fax
ARISBE: Peirce Telecommunity website - http://members.door.net/arisbe
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:56:19 +0100 (MET)
From: patcop[…]bo.nettuno.it (Patrick J. Coppock)
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Tom Anderson's death
Message-ID:
Joe, you wrote:
>I received a message yesterday from Mark Weisz, a friend of Tom
>Anderson, who informed me of Tom's death on February 9th of a heart
>attack and who joined the peirce-l list for the purpose of writing a
>notice of this to the list in general. I won't say more until Mark has
>time to compose and distribute his own message on this, and I mention it
>myself now only because other notices of it -- I just received one from
>Andy Loewy -- are being forwarded to me.
>
>With a saddened heart,
>Joe Ransdell
Deeply saddened by this news Joe.
Though I never had a chance to meet Tom face to face, I will miss his
knowledgeable and always enthusiastic voice here on Peirce-l more than I
can say.
If possible please pass on my sincere condolances to his family and
friends. But perhaps some kind of general message on behalf of Peirce-l
list members/friends would be the most appropriate?
Sadly
Patrick
_______________________________________________________________
Patrick J. Coppock tel. +47 73 59 08 71 (office)
The Norwegian University of tel. +47 73 59 88 70 (lab)
Technology and Science tel. +47 72 55 50 91 (home)
Dept. of Applied Linguistics fax: +47 73 59 81 50 (Norway)
N-7055 Dragvoll, Norway : +39 51 33 29 39 (Italy)
e-mail:
patcop[…]alfa.itea.ntnu.no (Norway)
patcop[…]bo.nettuno.it (Italy)
WWW http://www.hf.ntnu.no/anv/wwwpages/PJCHome2.html
_______________________________________________________________
"What is seductive about the causal approach is that it leads
one to say: "Of course, that's how it must be". While one
ought to think: In this, and in many other ways it may have
occurred." L. Wittgenstein, 2.7.1940
_______________________________________________________________
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 19:25:29 GMT
From: BugDaddy[…]cris.com (BugDaddy)
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Tom Anderson's death
Message-ID: <34ee40ff.4900266[…]pop3.cris.com>
On Sun, 15 Feb 1998 08:45:41 -0600 (CST), joseph.ransdell[…]yahoo.com
(ransdell, joseph m.) wrote:
>I received a message yesterday from Mark Weisz, a friend of Tom
>Anderson, who informed me of Tom's death on February 9th of a heart
>attack and who joined the peirce-l list for the purpose of writing a
>notice of this to the list in general. I won't say more until Mark has
>time to compose and distribute his own message on this, and I mention it
>myself now only because other notices of it -- I just received one from
>Andy Loewy -- are being forwarded to me.
>With a saddened heart,
Blessed repose and eternal memory!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Life is a miracle waiting to happen.
http://www.cris.com/~bugdaddy/life.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William Overcamp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Christ is among us...
He is and Will be!
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 22:19:04 +0200
From: Douglas Moore
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: a question about LISP and recursion ... abduction
Message-ID: <34E74DB8.711384A5[…]netvision.net.il>
BugDaddy wrote:
> It seems to me that recursion is a generalization of the idea of
> induction. You have an initial state S1 and a procedure P(S1) =
> S2; P(S2) = S3; P(S3) = S4.. such that (1) each step takes you
> closer to what you are looking for and (2) you know that after a
> certain point you can stop with a satisfactory result.
Yes, a recursive procedure in LISP specifies an inductive process. The LISP
interpreter will transform the linguistic form of the specification into a
geometric, cellular _representation_ of the inductive process. Mechanically
evaluating the representation will lead to the sort of process you describe.
Once the LISP programmer can recursively specifiy/represent what the square
root "means" in the LISP paradigm then he has not only represented the
problem, but also the potential solution - to within any desired precision,
in this case. To get the solution, one only has to mechanically evaluate the
representation.
What is interesting is how the recursive problem solver - the LISP programmer
in this case - actually came up with this specification of an inductive
process.
One could say that the real intelligence involves how to go from the
indicative examples or intuitions of square root to the inductive procedure
and hence the representation from which a solution automatically follows.
>From the maze problem, how do you pose it and represent it as a (recursive)
problem. From the classical Towers Hanoi problem or just from raw data, how
do you formulate it in the form of a recursive representation?
This is a kind of hypothesis formation process - what Peirce called
abduction. The hypothesis is not guaranteed to work and so is more a question
than a solution. However, if you ask the right question, this recursive
technique is guaranteed to give the right answer. Getting the answer is not
the problem. Getting the problem is the real problem.
In this context, abduction restates the essential problem as being
essentially that of asking_the_right_question. The emphasis is not on finding
an immediate solution to the problem, but in understanding the problem. As
I've said, one you have the right handle on the problem, the solution is
mechanically automatic.
In brief, when the pure LISP programmer writes his clever recursive
procedures he is obliged to unconsciously become an adept exponent of pure
abductive thinking.
The problem for people like me, is how to automate this kind of thinking. It
can't be achieved in the LISP paradigm alone.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 22:49:20 +0100
From: Thomas.Riese[…]t-online.de (Thomas Riese)
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Tom Anderson's death
Message-ID:
Fri, 6 Feb 1998 Tom Anderson wrote:
> One of the points Aristotle makes in the Categories is simply that 'being as
> such' is unanalyzable ...
My dear Tom. I will not forget you. Don't ask me why.
Thomas.
------------------------------
Date: Sun, 15 Feb 1998 17:08:47
From: Joseph Ransdell
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Tom Anderson's death
Message-ID: <3.0.1.16.19980215170847.67ff1512[…]pop.ttu.edu>
To Pat Coppock:
Pat, you suggest that:
>If possible please pass on my sincere condolances to his family and
>friends. But perhaps some kind of general message on behalf of Peirce-l
>list members/friends would be the most appropriate?
I don't doubt that it would be, Pat, and after we hear more from Mark
Weiszon this I will compose something appropriate and -- as best I can --
truly expressive of the regard in which he is held here. I expect to hear
something more from Mark on this, though, and will wait on that. I do know
that the memorial service for Tom was some time today, in Cambridge, Mass,
but I have no idea where so there was no way to send condolences to the
memorial service. (Mark has doubtless been involved in the service and the
arrangements for it.) I did express quite strongly to Mark in my return
message to him yesterday just how much Tom had contributed of himself here
and how highly he was regarded, and he has perhaps already conveyed that to
both friends and family, so there is no urgency about this.
The only other information I have about Tom's death is that he was
fifty-one years old, the cause was heart failure, and he was survived by a
wife and three children.
Joe Ransdell
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Joseph Ransdell - joseph.ransdell[…]yahoo.com
Dept of Philosophy - 806 742-3158 (FAX 742-0730)
Texas Tech University - Lubbock, Texas 79409 USA
http://members.door.net/arisbe (Peirce website - beta)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 04:04:50 GMT
From: BugDaddy[…]cris.com (BugDaddy)
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Porphyry: On Aristotle's Categories/The New List (4)
Message-ID: <34e8b5e9.5703104[…]pop3.cris.com>
Thomas.Riese[…]t-online.de (Thomas Riese) wrote:
>In response to Bill Overcamp (BugDaddy, 13 Feb 98 - 22:33):
>Bill, I think your important message on Porphyry and Aristotle might
>bring us a step further to the decisive things.
I hope so, but must admit that I do not particularly understand
what you wrote. So sorry. There is only one thing I can comment
on:
>
>I think it is decisive for a deeper understanding of Peirce's logic to
>see the systematic connection. If this seems far fetched I could give
>it additional plausibility by the following: Peirce got a decisive
>impulse for his logic based on categories by considering the
>_geometry_ of Aristotle's syllogistic system and Peirce's categories
>are akin to bases in geometry. Concerning Goedel it has often been
>remarked that the extension of incomplete systems by Goedelian
>propositions is very similar to the branching into different types of
>non-Euclidean geometries.
I think there is a real difference between what Goedel did and
what has been done in the development of non-Euclidean
geometries: As I understand it, Goedel proved that in the system
G1 which he developed to represent the natural numbers, there is
technique for generating a statement S1 which is meta-necessarily
true, but unprovable within the system G1. We therefore can add
S1 as an axiom to G1 to derive a system G2. But note: we do not
have the option of adding ~S1 to the G1. Such an addition would
lead to an immediate meta-contradiction. Thus we end up with a
sequence of systems, G1, G2, G3... and statements S1, S2, S3...
which is already determined by G1, itself. Thus, there is a
meta-mathematical sense in which all of these systems are really
the same. They are different only with regard to their formal
structure, and hence what can be proven within them.
In non-Euclidean geometries on the contrary, the additional
axioms are not pre-determined by their common axioms, and are
really different from each other.
-----------------------------------
"In essentials unity, in nonessentials diversity,
in all things charity"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Life is a miracle waiting to happen.
http://www.cris.com/~bugdaddy/life.htm
-----------------------------------
William Overcamp
-----------------------------------
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 10:38:18 +0100
From: "H.G.CALLAWAY"
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Tom Anderson's death
I am going to miss Tom Anderson's fine contributions to our dis-
cussions. More than this I find it difficult to say.
I hope that those who knew him personally will have some opportunity
to tell us about the person and the life.
Think too of the importance of getting to know the person at the
other end of our discussions!
Howard
H.G. Callaway
Seminar for Philosophy
University of Mainz
On Sun, 15 Feb 1998 joseph.ransdell[…]yahoo.com wrote:
> I received a message yesterday from Mark Weisz, a friend of Tom
> Anderson, who informed me of Tom's death on February 9th of a heart
> attack and who joined the peirce-l list for the purpose of writing a
> notice of this to the list in general. I won't say more until Mark has
> time to compose and distribute his own message on this, and I mention it
> myself now only because other notices of it -- I just received one from
> Andy Loewy -- are being forwarded to me.
>
> With a saddened heart,
> Joe Ransdell
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 12:23:19 -0500
From: Hugo Fjelsted Alroe
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Tom Anderson's death
Message-ID: <3.0.2.32.19980216122319.007793c8[…]vip.cybercity.dk>
"Don't block the road of inquiry" said Peirce.
But whether we will or not, there are blocks we cannot avoid. Tom's
untimely death is such a block. He was part in my inquiry, part in the
inquiry of the Peirce community and of others as well, I am sure.
Inquiry is based on a willingness to communicate, a willingness to be part
in a community of inquirers, which may overcome the blocks on the road. And
even in this both gifted and disabled medium of communication, a feeling of
community can arise. Tom was one of those who supported this community
feeling and helped build this most vital ground for inquiry. For this and
for his many contributions I am grateful.
Tom did good, and he will be missed.
Hugo
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Feb 1998 23:20:57 +1100 (EDT)
From: Cathy Legg
To: peirce-l[…]ttacs6.ttu.edu
Subject: Re: Tom Anderson's death
Message-ID:
I was very upset to read that Tom had died - it is all so sudden!
Just last month I was in the States and I met Tom for the first time and
he cooked dinner for me and his family, and we talked. Looking back, I
can see some signs of his being frail that I misinterpreted at the
time. I wish I had not.
What I will remember about Tom is his great intellectual generosity and
the sincerity of his passion for philosophy. For about a year we
emailed each other almost every day about Peirce (and philosophy more
generally, literature, science, mathematics...the breadth of his interests
was amazing). We'd chat about threads on the Peirce-L, but most of all,
we'd share with each other what we had been reading. More or less
together we went through the Eisele volumes on Peirce on history of
science (which we both found really fascinating, especially the stuff on
Hume on miracles), then the 1898 lectures, then writings on continuity from
the New Elements, and more recently the 1903 lectures on pragmatism. He
held out for a long time on the usefulness of the categories, as his
instincts were those of a good scientist - how does this conception affect
our practice in measurable ways? I, being trained in "high metaphysics",
was greatly challenged and stimulated by this attitude, and ended up slowly
growing into much of it, while at the same time I put the case to him that
not all metaphysics (or transcendental semeiotic) was "bad". I thought that
with respect to the categories he was coming round....
Often if Tom was reading something which was hard to get access to in
Australia, or if he was just excited about it and thought I would like
it - he would photocopy it and stick it in the mail to me. I benefitted
a great deal from this.
More recently I pulled away from our correspondence somewhat as I needed
to put my time at the computer into at last writing up my thesis. I
regret that now. And I wish I could have said goodbye.
I have a large file of Tom's email messages - both to the Peirce-L and to
me personally. I didn't keep all of them, just the ones that interested
me, but that was most of them. It strikes me that they are of considerable
intellectual value. So many lines of thought explored, ideas
suggested...Tom had such wonderful intellectual curiosity. I wonder if
some sort of archive could or should be set up? Maybe at Arisbe?
Sadly,
Cathy.
{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{
Cathy Legg,
Philosophy Programme,
RSSS, ANU, ACT, AUS.,
0200.
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/Depts/RSSS/Philosophy/People/Cathy/Cathy.html
}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
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