Charles Sanders Peirce and the Mind-Body-World Relation
Charles Sanders Peirce and the Mind-Body-World Relation Charles Sanders Peirce and the Mind-Body-World Relation
valence, we must also consider the possible effects of signs of negative valence – i.e.in situations where there is some kind of silence, or an lack of enunciation: perhaps an“explicit” not mentioning of something or other that might otherwise have beenmentioned - as partially constitutive of individual “personality”. Indeed, he hints, themaintenance of strategic (or other) silences about certain matters in certain situationsis perhaps one of the most potent tools we possess for the public development of aninfluential personality or “self-image”. As he puts it (my italics): “The phenomena ofpersonality consist mainly in ability to hold the tongue. This is what the tongue bragsso about.”The importance Peirce by implication attributes here to what we often find referred totoday by rhetoricians, discourse analysts and sociolinguists as “strategic”, or“manipulative silences” 12 – or “holding the tongue” in peircean terms – for theconstitution of a certain kind of public image can easily shown to have contemporaryrelevance if we consider a few visible and easily examinable public silences referredto in some recent (December 2002-January 2003) news headlines and stories.Let us take as examples the following four news media quotes:“[The omissions are] big enough to drive a tank through” 13“Buffet shines despite paradox on governance: The Sage of Omaha’s own company remainssecretive.” 14“Jailed for her silence, McDougal speaks out” 15“With a scandal chipping away at his government, Ariel Sharon has changed the subject toIraq and found his country eager to listen” 16Example 1 is a quote in Newsweek from an unnamed US official commenting on the12000 page report complied by Iraq in the Fall of 2002 on its national weaponsprogram, subsequently discounted as false by the United States. In Example 2 theBuffet referred to in the headline is American multimillionaire investor WarrenBuffet, who has a well-established international reputation for maintaining deepstrategic silences in relation to multifarious global investment projects. TheMcDougal referred to in Example 3 is Susan Mc Dougal, a Clinton family friend fromLittle Rock, Arkansas who refused to witness in 1996 against (then) President Bill andHilary Clinton during the Whitewater political corruption investigation led by USIndependent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Mc Dougal was subsequently jailed for contemptof court and fraud in return for maintaining this particular silence. Example 4 is anInternational Herald Tribune headline which refers to speculations in the internationalmass-media that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who at a certain point aroundNew Year 2003 had abruptly ceased to address publicly various issues related to someserious legal accusations of internal corruption in his governing Likud party, wasattempting to shift focus instead to potential dangers to Israel in the case of a war withIraq merely in order to silence further open discussion of the corruption investigation,12 See for example Huckin (2001: 231-252), who postulates five semi-discreet categories of textual silence:speech-act silences, which must be noticed by interlocutors in order to function, presuppositional silences, whichavoid stating the obvious and thus serve communicational efficiency, discreet silences, which avoidinterpersonally and ethically sensitive information, conventional silences, which relate to genre conventions, andmanipulative silences designed to conceal relevant information from interlocutors.13 Newsweek, December 23, 200214 The Financial Times, 28-29 December 2002. Title of an article by Adrian Michaels.15 The International Herald Tribune, December 31, 2002 - January 1, 2003. Title of an article by Jennifer Frey.16 The International Herald Tribune, December 30, 2002. Excerpt from an article by Dexter Fillins entitled“Sharon shifts the focus to specter of Iraqi war: Remarks help halt slide of Likud Party”.
and in doing so, dampen the effects of this investigation on public opinion ahead ofcoming elections in the country.Now, quite apart from any wider inferences we might want to draw regarding possiblepractical and political future consequences of any of the four different scenariosevoked by the above headlines, it is quite easy to for anyone with a minimum ofbackground knowledge in international affairs to begin to develop some workinghypotheses regarding Saddam Hussein, Warren Buffet, Susan Mc Dougal and ArielSharon’s actual states of mind and personal attitudes in the situations referred toabove, or more generally speaking, their “personalities”, on the basis of the variousenunciation strategies attributed to these actors in these press quotes. Indeed, we alldo this kind of differentiating out and attribution of meanings regarding our folkunderstandingsof the “personalities” of public (and private) figures all the time, so itis quite clear that Peirce was onto something quite fundamental here. Strategicallymaintained, and other kinds of public silences definitely do count. And indeed, incertain social and cultural settings, specific kinds of public silence have been heavilyinstitutionalised. We might also consider for instance, just what kinds of “futurepractical effects” might possibly result from possible responses (or not) to such awell-worn public proposition heard in wedding ceremonies all over the world as:“If anyone can show just cause why they may not lawfully be joined together, let them speaknow, or else hereafter forever hold their peace”Another, even more perturbing example of socialized or institutionalized silence is thewell-known system of social norms tied to the conspiratory, solidaritory forms ofsilence known as the “omtertà”, traditionally operative among members of the ItalianSicilian Mafia community, where transgressions against this particular unwrittencommunicative norm system can, and indeed often do, lead to an unpleasant demiseon the part of transgressors.3. Action, Motion and ExperienceAt this point, I want to try and make a couple of rather speculative commentsregarding a possible relationship between the triad of notions: ‘action’, ‘motion’ and‘experience’. More generally speaking, we might start off by making the hypotheticalassertion that the meanings of ‘action’ and ‘motion’ are somewhat similar to oneanother, while they are by no means semantically isomorphic concepts, whereas‘experience’ is obviously a rather more difficult concept to define than the other twoin any kind of simple way, and it can probably be seen, too, as the most general andthus cognitively complex (though vague), of the three concepts now underconsideration. Perhaps too, experience can be seen as both presupposing the existenceof the other two concepts, while at the same time being potentially capable ofencompassing or incorporating phenomenal aspects related to both the other twoconcepts in the triad.If we attempt to develop a simple pragmatic 17 analysis of possible meaning relationsbetween the three above mentioned concepts, we find that there can be at least threepotential practical consequences of the above conjuncture being correct, which, when17 One of Peirce’s more well known formulations of his Pragmatic Maxim is as follows:“Consider what effects that might conceivably have practical bearings we conceive the object of our conception tohave; then our conception of those effects is the whole of our conception of the object” [C.P. 5.18]
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valence, we must also consider <strong>the</strong> possible effects of signs of negative valence – i.e.in situations where <strong>the</strong>re is some kind of silence, or an lack of enunciation: perhaps an“explicit” not mentioning of something or o<strong>the</strong>r that might o<strong>the</strong>rwise have beenmentioned - as partially constitutive of individual “personality”. Indeed, he hints, <strong>the</strong>maintenance of strategic (or o<strong>the</strong>r) silences about certain matters in certain situationsis perhaps one of <strong>the</strong> most potent tools we possess for <strong>the</strong> public development of aninfluential personality or “self-image”. As he puts it (my italics): “The phenomena ofpersonality consist mainly in ability to hold <strong>the</strong> tongue. This is what <strong>the</strong> tongue bragsso about.”The importance <strong>Peirce</strong> by implication attributes here to what we often find referred totoday by rhetoricians, discourse analysts <strong>and</strong> sociolinguists as “strategic”, or“manipulative silences” 12 – or “holding <strong>the</strong> tongue” in peircean terms – for <strong>the</strong>constitution of a certain kind of public image can easily shown to have contemporaryrelevance if we consider a few visible <strong>and</strong> easily examinable public silences referredto in some recent (December 2002-January 2003) news headlines <strong>and</strong> stories.Let us take as examples <strong>the</strong> following four news media quotes:“[The omissions are] big enough to drive a tank through” 13“Buffet shines despite paradox on governance: The Sage of Omaha’s own company remainssecretive.” 14“Jailed for her silence, McDougal speaks out” 15“With a sc<strong>and</strong>al chipping away at his government, Ariel Sharon has changed <strong>the</strong> subject toIraq <strong>and</strong> found his country eager to listen” 16Example 1 is a quote in Newsweek from an unnamed US official commenting on <strong>the</strong>12000 page report complied by Iraq in <strong>the</strong> Fall of 2002 on its national weaponsprogram, subsequently discounted as false by <strong>the</strong> United States. In Example 2 <strong>the</strong>Buffet referred to in <strong>the</strong> headline is American multimillionaire investor WarrenBuffet, who has a well-established international reputation for maintaining deepstrategic silences in relation to multifarious global investment projects. TheMcDougal referred to in Example 3 is Susan Mc Dougal, a Clinton family friend fromLittle Rock, Arkansas who refused to witness in 1996 against (<strong>the</strong>n) President Bill <strong>and</strong>Hilary Clinton during <strong>the</strong> Whitewater political corruption investigation led by USIndependent Counsel Kenneth Starr. Mc Dougal was subsequently jailed for contemptof court <strong>and</strong> fraud in return for maintaining this particular silence. Example 4 is anInternational Herald Tribune headline which refers to speculations in <strong>the</strong> internationalmass-media that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who at a certain point aroundNew Year 2003 had abruptly ceased to address publicly various issues related to someserious legal accusations of internal corruption in his governing Likud party, wasattempting to shift focus instead to potential dangers to Israel in <strong>the</strong> case of a war withIraq merely in order to silence fur<strong>the</strong>r open discussion of <strong>the</strong> corruption investigation,12 See for example Huckin (2001: 231-252), who postulates five semi-discreet categories of textual silence:speech-act silences, which must be noticed by interlocutors in order to function, presuppositional silences, whichavoid stating <strong>the</strong> obvious <strong>and</strong> thus serve communicational efficiency, discreet silences, which avoidinterpersonally <strong>and</strong> ethically sensitive information, conventional silences, which relate to genre conventions, <strong>and</strong>manipulative silences designed to conceal relevant information from interlocutors.13 Newsweek, December 23, 200214 The Financial Times, 28-29 December 2002. Title of an article by Adrian Michaels.15 The International Herald Tribune, December 31, 2002 - January 1, 2003. Title of an article by Jennifer Frey.16 The International Herald Tribune, December 30, 2002. Excerpt from an article by Dexter Fillins entitled“Sharon shifts <strong>the</strong> focus to specter of Iraqi war: Remarks help halt slide of Likud Party”.
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