Published on Commens (http://www.commens.org)

Home > Quote from "On a New List of Categories"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Information’ (pub. 07.01.15-11:35). 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-new-list-categories-13.
Term: 
Information
Quote: 

…there is, first, the direct reference of a symbol to its objects, or its denotation; second, the reference of the symbol to its ground, through its object, that is, its reference to the common characters of its objects, or its connotation; and third, its reference to its interpretants through its object, that is, its reference to all the synthetical propositions in which its objects in common are subject or predicate, and this I term the information it embodies. And as every addition to what it denotes, or to what it connotes, is effected by means of a distinct proposition of this kind, it follows that the extension and comprehension of a term are in an inverse relation, as long as the information remains the same, and that every increase of information is accompanied by an increase of one or other of these two quantities.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1867). On a New List of Categories. Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 7, 287-298.
References: 
W 2:59; CP 1.559
Date of Quote: 
1867
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-new-list-categories-13