The Commens Dictionary

Quote from ‘Logic viewed as Semeiotics. Introduction Number 2. Phaneroscopy’

Quote: 

Among phanerons there are certain qualities of feeling, such as the color of magenta, the odor of attar, the sound of a railway whistle, the taste of quinine, the quality of the emotion upon contemplating a fine mathematical demonstration, the quality of feeling of love, etc. I do not mean the sense of actually experiencing these feelings, whether primarily or in any memory or imagination. That is something that involves these qualities as an element of it. But I mean the qualities themselves which, in themselves, are mere may-bes, not necessarily realized. The reader may be inclined to deny that. If so, he has not fully grasped the point that we are not considering what is true, not even what truly appears. I ask him to note that the word red means something when I say that the precession of the equinoxes is no more red than it is blue, and that it means just what it means when I say that aniline red is red. That mere quality, or suchness, is not in itself an occurrence, as seeing a red object is; it is a mere may-be. Its only being consists in the fact that there might be such a peculiar, positive, suchness in a phaneron.

Date: 
1904
References: 
CP 1.304
Citation: 
‘Quality of Feeling’ (pub. 14.10.15-16:38). 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-logic-viewed-semeiotics-introduction-number-2-phaneroscopy-1.
Posted: 
Oct 14, 2015, 16:38 by Mats Bergman
Last revised: 
Feb 28, 2018, 16:27 by Mats Bergman