This Morning's Letter to A Pen Pal

The first thing I did in writing my reply to you is fix that hideous typo in the subject line of the email. Ha! ;-) ... Then I gathered a few things to include in this email to help explain my thinking. You see, the more I have learned about Peirce over the years, the more I have realized how much I identify with his work and his personal writings. Of course the one thing I have always had issue with is how Wikipedia has those remarks about racism in their page on Peirce. I have no doubt that Benjamin Peirce may have been racist, and as often happens when a child grows up in such a household, Charles may have had to reconcile that with the times and his own personal feelings. His writings reveal his growth and changes in every other way, so I truly believe this may have been yet another metamorphosis for him. Afterall, in his later years he described himself as a bohemian, and I challenge anyone to tell me how many racist bohemians they know. I have read the letters to his mother when he was a young man traveling throughout Europe and visiting different cultures and museums, commenting on language articulations, but never mentioning skin color. It seems to me that his true nature would be revealed in letters to his own mother. Anyway, on to my other thoughts. .... The more I read, the more I am in agreement with Peirce about his use of the word phaneroscopy. As with so many terms in philosophy that become tainted and difficult for anyone to decipher the differences without having laboriously studied the ins and outs of the history of philosophy and somehow avoiding the Cartesian 'knowledge' of academia in the process, he wanted to clearly distance it from nominalistic thought twists and misinterpretations. He wrote, "I propose to use the word Phaneron as a proper name to denote the total content of anyone consciousness (for anyone is substantially any other,) the sum of all we have in mind in any way whatever, regardless of its cognitive value. This is pretty vague: I intentionally leave it so. I will only point out that I do not limit the reference to an instantaneous state of consciousness; for the clause “in any way whatever” takes in memory and all habitual cognition. The reader will probably wonder why I did not content myself with some expression already in use. The reason is that the absence of any contiguous associations with the new word will render it sharper and clearer than any well-worn coin could be." He then wrote this in 1909, "phaneroscopy is still in the condition of a science-egg, hardly any details of it being as yet distinguishable, though enough to assure the student of it that . . . it surely will in the future become a strong and beneficent science.” He was always so careful to choose his words. I get that, as that is probably the most striking thing that he and I have in common. I also consider some other aspects of his work that others seem to pay less attention to. Imagination, for example. He has this in common with C.G. Jung. I do not know if you know much about Jung's Active Imagination, or his work with mandalas, but there are a lot of similarities in regard to iconic representations. As you said,"logic with hints of humanness", but I see him as having much more humanness than many academics do because of their focus on his brilliant logic. I get that, as that is what academics do in the pursuit of knowledge and constantly scrutinizing comparisons, but I see beautiful gems in there that I think many others may overlook. On to some of my other thoughts..... There is so much focus on Plato, and I really do understand why, but one of the reasons I like that Isonomia book by Karatani so much is because I recognize Peirce there. Here is a link to something Peirce wrote that I sometimes think others are unaware of in regard to how they connect his thought with other variations of phenomenologies and Plato. ... https://www.unav.es/gep/MS1604En.html Another way that I identify with Peirce is that I credit Epicurus for beginning this fascinating journey of mine so many years ago. Karatani recognized Epicurus as a terminus of Ionian natural philosophy, and he also wrote about Socrates as the last great Ionian natural philosopher to grace the streets of Athens (being killed because they thought he was of Sophist intent), and even though Plato was a student of Socrates, Plato was the beginning of an Athens tainted line of thinking. The lineage described by Karatani is quite fascinating. I've included just one image of a page from the book (pg 37). https://photos.app.goo.gl/UkB9aQfHCFuFj5QA7 I also see so many similarities with Heraclitus in Peirce's thought. Because of all of these reasons, I believe that Peirce was of an Ionian natural philosophy-type perspective, and I have concluded that I am that as well. So, for the purposes of what I have planned in my group discussions, I am going to use the term phaneroscopy, and do my best to apply it in the dialogue sessions around the two books I mentioned to you in previous emails (Isonomia and the Origins of Philosophy, and The Theological Origins of Modernity). Those two books have the potential for a deprogramming effect, and plenty of topics to discuss in a phaneroscopic way. :) So... my next challenge is to get folks to actually be interested and come to meetings! Things are starting off slow, as people are just starting to feel safe to get together again after COVID. I did go ahead and purchase a GoToMeeting account so that I can offer online gatherings at times that will work for people in other countries. Between that and offering a local gathering, perhaps I'll attract a few people to start, and then hopefully grow. It's unfortunate that so many people are afraid to learn something new, or even read a few pages in a book chapter. .... I won't give up. I'm in this for the long haul. I hope things are going well for you in other aspects of your life. I picture you up there in D.C. holed up in your office writing and sharing your brilliance with others. I consider myself very lucky to have you as a pen pal. :) Enjoy your day!