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Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘General’ (pub. 20.08.17-11:22). Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce's Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. Retrieved from http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-issues-pragmaticism-21.
Term: 
General
Quote: 

A sign (under which designation I place every kind of thought, and not alone external signs) that is in any respect objectively indeterminate (i.e., whose object is undetermined by the sign itself) is objectively general in so far as it extends to the interpreter the privilege of carrying its determination further. [—]

Perhaps a more scientific pair of definitions would be that anything is general in so far as the principle of excluded middle does not apply to it and is vague in so far as the principle of contradiction does not apply to it.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1905). Issues of Pragmaticism. The Monist, 15(4), 481-499.
References: 
EP 2:350-351; CP 5.447-448
Date of Quote: 
1905
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-issues-pragmaticism-21