Theology, I Am Persuaded, Derives Its Initial

It Is Important To Understand What I Mean By Semiosis. All Dynamic Action, Or Action Of Brute Force, Physical Or Psychical, Either Takes Place Between Two Subjects, Whether They React Equally Upon Each Other, Or One Is Agent And The Other Patient, Entirely Or Partially, Or At Any Rate Is A Resultant Of Such Actions Between Pairs. But By "semiosis" I Mean, On The Contrary, An Action, Or Influence, Which Is, Or Involves, A Cooperation Of Three Subjects, Such As A Sign, Its Object, And Its Interpretant, This Tri-relative Influence Not Being In Any Way Resolvable Into Actions Between Pairs.

One Will Meet, For Example, The Virtual Assumption That What Is Relative To Thought Cannot Be Real. But Why Not, Exactly? Red Is Relative To Sight, But The Fact That This Or That Is In That Relation To Vision That We Call Being Red Is Not Itself Relative To Sight; It Is A Real Fact.

The Consciousness Of A General Idea Has A Certain "unity Of The Ego" In It, Which Is Identical When It Passes From One Mind To Another. It Is, Therefore, Quite Analogous To A Person, And Indeed, A Person Is Only A Particular Kind Of General Idea.

No General Description Of The Mode Of Advance Of Human Knowledge Can Be Just Which Leaves Out Of Account The Social Aspect Of Knowledge. That Is Of Its Very Essence. What A Thing Society Is! The Workingman, With His Trade Union, Knows That. Men And Women Moving In Polite Society Understand It, Still Better. But Bohemians, Like Me, Whose Work Is Done In Solitude, Are Apt To Forget That Not Only Is A Man As A Whole Little Better Than A Brute In Solitude, But Also That Everything That Bears Any Important Meaning To Him Must Receive Its Interpretation From Social Considerations.

All The Progress We Have Made In Philosophy ... Is The Result Of That Methodical Skepticism Which Is The Element Of Human Freedom.