Firstness

It is often thought that consciousness has a qualitative dimension that cannot be tracked by science. Recently, however, some philosophers have argued that this worry stems not from an elusive feature of the mind, but from the special nature of the concepts used to describe conscious states. Marc Champagne draws on the neglected branch of philosophy of signs or semiotics to develop a new take on this strategy. 

The term “semiotics” was introduced by John Locke in the modern period – its etymology is ancient Greek, and its theoretical underpinnings are medieval. Charles Sanders Peirce made major advances in semiotics, so he can act as a pipeline for these forgotten ideas. Most philosophers know Peirce as the founder of American pragmatism, but few know that he also coined the term “qualia,” which is meant to capture the intrinsic feel of an experience. Since pragmatic verification and qualia are now seen as conflicting commitments, Champagne endeavors to understand how Peirce could (or thought he could) have it both ways. The key, he suggests, is to understand how humans can insert distinctions between features that are always bound.

Recent attempts to take qualities seriously have resulted in versions of panpsychism, but Champagne outlines a more plausible way to achieve this. So, while semiotics has until now been the least known branch of philosophy ending in –ics, his book shows how a better understanding of that branch can move one of the liveliest debates in philosophy forward.

The Existence in the work of C. S. Peirce: Firstness, Secondeness, and Thirdness as an Approximation of Existence (article) – The article focuses on the three crucial categories of the phenomenology of the American philosopher C. S. Peirce. The article briefly outlines the Peirce’s philosophical attitudes in general, and depicts the categories of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness as possible ways how to approximate the existence. Peirce uses the three categories as an analytical method for his phenomenology. The article is an attempt of outlining of the Peirce understanding to the categories whereby it tries to point out how he thinks about being, existence, and reality.

"Although tropic structures are generally linked to verbal or visual materials in culture, tropes have long been understood as primary devices in the production of music. This paper seeks to show how musical tropes affect the interpretation of musical materials by
listeners. Tropes in music will be shown to correspond to the principal semiotic functions observed in traditional linguistics: iconic, indexical and symbolic. Using audio materials, this essay explore a number of these musical tropes taken from traditional Asian and Native American music; and Western art music from Baroque, Classical and modern periods. Iconic functions are shown to include onomatopoeic musical structures. Indexical
functions involve internal imitation, repetition and restatement, and symbolic functions involve the use of sound materials evocative of specific cultural images or institutions. The paper finally suggests that linguistic, visual and musical tropes are interconnected, mutually reinforcing, and may stem from the same set of cognitive functions in human culture.

(Spanish--Espanol)
Aunque las estructuras trópicas están generalmente ligadas a materiales verbales o visuales propios de la cultura, los tropos suelen haber sido considerados unos instrumentos primarios en la producción de la música. Este artículo trata de mostrar cómo los tropos musicales afectan a la interpretación de los materiales musicales por los oyentes. Se expone como, en la música, los tropos corresponden a las principales funciones semióticas
señaladas por la lingüística tradicional: icónica, indéxica y simbólica. Utilizando materiales de audio, este ensayo explora algunos de estos tropos musicales tomados de la música tradicional asiática y nativa americana, así como de la música del arte occidental del periodo barroco, clásico y moderno. Se muestra que las funciones icónicas incluyen estructuras musicales onomatopéyicas. Mientras las funciones indéxicas implican imitación interna, repetición y reafirmación, las funciones simbólicas suponen el uso de materiales sonoros que evocan imágenes o instituciones culturales específicas. Finalmente, el artículo sugiere que los tropos lingüísticos, visuales y musicales están interconectados, reforzándose mutuamente, y pueden proceder del mismo conjunto de funciones cognitivas que
caracteriza a la cultura humana."