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Peirce makes the point that one's first awareness of a personal existence arises in reaction to the brute impact of experience and is ultimately compounded by way of reflection on its imports.  Taking this to echo the exchange between Brutus and Cassius, I have the points that I need to stake out and to sound out a significant portion of the RIF that I intend to discuss.

Peirce makes the point that one's first awareness of a personal existence arises in reaction to the brute impact of experience and is ultimately compounded by way of reflection on its imports.  Taking this to echo the exchange between Brutus and Cassius, I have the points that I need to stake out and to sound out a significant portion of the RIF that I intend to discuss.

Before passing over the subject of the JE, in order to continue with a sketch of reflection, it is useful to notice a couple of features that affect this style of movement, as recapitulated in this strophe, and that determine the prospective turns of events, as predicated on its action.  In one sense the motion is reversible, since the boundary in the basic state space, once crossed, is easily crossed again.  In another sense the transition is irreversible, since what is learned from a single crossing, assuming the agent is capable of acquiring knowledge in the process, is neither so quickly forgotten nor so easily lost.

Before passing over the subject of the JE, in order to continue with a sketch of reflection, it is useful to notice a couple of features that affect this style of movement, as recapitulated in this strophe, and that determine the prospective turns of events, as predicated on its action.  In one sense the motion is reversible, since the boundary in the basic state space, once crossed, is easily crossed again.  In another sense the transition is irreversible, since what is learned from a single crossing, assuming the agent is capable of acquiring knowledge in the process, is neither so quickly forgotten nor so easily lost.

It is the usual thing, in contemplating the forms of development that are epitomized by the figure of the JE, to find the images of winding gyres and helical ascents coming to mind, in other words, the trajectories of open curves in an extended space that project onto closed curves in a more basic space.  In anticipation of later developments, I propose to attribute the "basic" and the "extended" aspects of this strophic segue to its "dynamic" and its "symbolic" components, respectively.

It is the usual thing, in contemplating the forms of development that are epitomized by the figure of the JE, to find the images of winding gyres and helical ascents coming to mind, in other words, the trajectories of open curves in an extended space that project onto closed curves in a more basic space.  In anticipation of later developments, I propose to attribute the ''basic'' and the ''extended'' aspects of this strophic segue to its ''dynamic'' and its ''symbolic'' components, respectively.

If it is important, at first sight, to recognize the JE as an irreducible primitive, inscribing its expression of its own being in the self signed tokens of a uniquely traced but perfectly typical autograph, all along personalizing its form of possession with an irrepressible panache, and leaving its legacy in an otherwise irreproducible style of paraph, it is just as important, on second thought, to try various schemes of analysis on it, with the aim, however artificially, of articulating, approximating, or explaining its form.

If it is important, at first sight, to recognize the JE as an irreducible primitive, inscribing its expression of its own being in the self signed tokens of a uniquely traced but perfectly typical autograph, all along personalizing its form of possession with an irrepressible panache, and leaving its legacy in an otherwise irreproducible style of paraph, it is just as important, on second thought, to try various schemes of analysis on it, with the aim, however artificially, of articulating, approximating, or explaining its form.

A number of questions arise at this point, concerning the justification of these moves, not just to justify the initial JE but to rationalize all of the ensuing action that is predicated on it.  Just to name a few:

A number of questions arise at this point, concerning the justification of these moves, not just to justify the initial JE but to rationalize all of the ensuing action that is predicated on it.  Just to name a few:

1. What justifies a particular way of leading experience to reflect on itself?

# What justifies a particular way of leading experience to reflect on itself?

 

# What justifies a particular way of causing reflection to comment on itself?

2. What justifies a particular way of causing reflection to comment on itself?

If it is asked, with respect to the legitimacy of all such questions, what is the justification for imposing extraneous ventures and superimposing foreign notions on the otherwise natural course of things, the answer has to be that, otherwise, it could not be articulated at all, and that, once reflected, the naturalness of expression that affected the original intention cannot be recovered without some risk of artificiality.

If it is asked, with respect to the legitimacy of all such questions, what is the justification for imposing extraneous ventures and superimposing foreign notions on the otherwise natural course of things, the answer has to be that, otherwise, it could not be articulated at all, and that, once reflected, the naturalness of expression that affected the original intention cannot be recovered without some risk of artificiality.

To deal with the relationship between the dynamic and the symbolic aspects of the JE, I try a couple of strategies, ranging in character from the casual to the formal.

To deal with the relationship between the dynamic and the symbolic aspects of the JE, I try a couple of strategies, ranging in character from the casual to the formal.

1. To start, I adapt an informal distinction between the "matter" of a thought and the "manner" of thinking it.  For example, in the effort to think about uncertainty one hopes to develop a certain concept of it. So, even though one continues to think about uncertainty, one hopes to become fairly certain about it.  Here, the matter or content of one's thinking is fixed on uncertainty while the manner or conduct of one's thinking is hoped to change from the dubious to the certain.

# To start, I adapt an informal distinction between the ''matter'' of a thought and the ''manner'' of thinking it.  For example, in the effort to think about uncertainty one hopes to develop a certain concept of it. So, even though one continues to think about uncertainty, one hopes to become fairly certain about it.  Here, the matter or content of one's thinking is fixed on uncertainty while the manner or conduct of one's thinking is hoped to change from the dubious to the certain.

 

# Eventually, it is necessary to develop a formal concept and even a mathematical model of this relationship.  To do this, I adopt the intuitive notions of a ''point of view'' (POV) and its ''point of development'' (POD), gradually turning them into formal concepts of a very general character.  This requires distinguishing between two kinds of propositions that are associated with POVs and PODs, namely:  (a) the propositions that are ''attached to'' or ''contained in'' them, and (b) the propositions that are ''applied to'' or ''maintained about'' them.

2. Eventually, it is necessary to develop a formal concept and even a mathematical model of this relationship.  To do this, I adopt the intuitive notions of a "point of view" (POV) and its "point of development" (POD), gradually turning them into formal concepts of a very general character.  This requires distinguishing between two kinds of propositions that are associated with POV's and POD's, namely:  (a) the propositions that are "attached to" or "contained in" them, and (b) the propositions that are "applied to" or "maintained about" them.

Just to give a rough idea of how these two distinctions relate to each other, the matter of a thought corresponds to an "attached" proposition, "in" a POV or "at" a POD, while the manner of a thought corresponds to an "applied" proposition, "on" a POV or "about" a POD.  Employing this language to describe the case of an inquiry successfully self applied, one can say the following things.  An agent of inquiry has a POV that changes from one POD to the next in a series of developments, and this can be a POV that concerns itself with the question of inquiry, among other things, and thus with the topics of uncertainty and certainty, or doubt and belief.  In such a case, as the POV moves from an initial POD to a terminal POD, a part of its matter stays fixed on "doubt", while its whole manner is transformed from one of "doubt" toward one of "belief".

Just to give a rough idea of how these two distinctions relate to each other, the matter of a thought corresponds to an "attached" proposition, "in" a POV or "at" a POD, while the manner of a thought corresponds to an "applied" proposition, "on" a POV or "about" a POD.  Employing this language to describe the case of an inquiry successfully self applied, one can say the following things.  An agent of inquiry has a POV that changes from one POD to the next in a series of developments, and this can be a POV that concerns itself with the question of inquiry, among other things, and thus with the topics of uncertainty and certainty, or doubt and belief.  In such a case, as the POV moves from an initial POD to a terminal POD, a part of its matter stays fixed on "doubt", while its whole manner is transformed from one of "doubt" toward one of "belief".