Rhythmic Foundations, and the Necessary Aesthetic in Peirce’s Categories :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Rhythmic Foundations, and the Necessary Aesthetic in Peirces Categories scheme There has been a tendency in scholarship to mite rather clear of discussions of Peirce and Aesthetics, and I believe that the main reason that Peirces full treatment lacks, perhaps notwithstanding intentionally, a clear aesthetic theory is because his inherent architectonic of experience is aesthetically founded. This thesis is based, in part, on the necessity aesthetic descriptions one is forced to use when describing something such as the categories. For example, Secondness unavoidably elicits aesthetic descriptions of relations and tensions, Thirdness is described most accurately with words such as harmony and arrangement, and the process by which we come to attain a belief is an aesthetic endeavor aimed at satisfaction. Focusing particularly on the categories, and secondarily on the method for attaining belief, I hope to show that Peirces foundation is, itself, an aesthetic awareness of life.T here has been a tendency to steer quite clear of discussions of Peirce and Aesthetics. Over and over, statements by Peircean scholars attest to the lack of philosophical guidance regarding the status and judgment of art that is available in his writings.(1) Peirce himself states that, My popular opinion would be that there are innumerable varieties of esthetic quality, but no purely esthetic grade of excellence.(2) Doug Anderson also states that a Peircean aesthetic is badly to piece together because it was a very late addition to Peirces classification of the sciences. That is, even though aesthetics is presupposed by ethics, logic, and metaphysics, in Peirces prioritization of the sciences, his intention was that aesthetics was to be understood through the work he had already done in the other branches of his system.(3)This vagueness hasnt, however, prevented scholars from speculating on the aesthetic in Peirces works. Yet even so, we are still faced with some problems. First i s the paleontological reconstruction, as Herman Parret states, of the various minuscule references by Peirce regarding the aesthetic. Second, it is claimed that if any approach to a Peircean aesthetic is going to be worthwhile, it volition probably be too large to handle because it must incorporated his views on logic, metaphysics and theology.(4) Third, as pointed out by Beverly Kent, Peirce seems to conflate two senses of the aesthetic, where it is some(prenominal) a quality that is immediately present and an ultimate ideal.(5)I will argue that the main reason that Peirces works lacks, perhaps even intentionally, a clear aesthetic theory is because his depiction of experience is aesthetically founded.