The Basis of Pragmatism

1.294-95,313,350-352     G-c.1905-5

  294. I doubt not that readers have been ketting over the
ridiculous-seeming phrase "indecomposable element," which
is as Hibernian as "necessary and sufficient condition" (as if
" condition" meant no more than concomitant and as [if] needful
were not the proper accompaniment of "sufficient"). But I
have used it because I do not mean simply element. Logical
analysis is not an analysis into existing elements. It is the
tracing out of relations between concepts on the assumption
that along with each given or found concept is given its
negative, and every other relation resulting from a transposition of
its correlates. The latter postulate amounts to merely
identifying each correlate and distinguishing it from the others without
recognizing any serial order among them. Thus to love and to
be loved are regarded as the same concept, and not to love is
also to be considered as the same concept. The combination of
concepts is always by two at a time and consists in indefinitely
identifying a subject of the one with a subject of the other,
every correlate being regarded as a subject. Then if one
concept can be accurately defined as a combination of others, and
if these others are not of more complicated structure than the
defined concept, then the defined concept is regarded as analyzed

  ** "The Basis of Pragmatism," Notebook I, c. 1905.
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into these others. Thus A is grandparent of B, if and
only if A is a parent of somebody who is a parent of B,
therefore grandparent is analyzed into parent and parent. So
stepparent, if taken as not excluding parentage, is analyzed into
spouse and parent; and parent-in-law into parent and spouse.
  295. These things being premised we may say in primo,
there is no a priori reason why there should not be
indecomposable elements of the phaneron which are what they are
regardless of anything else, each complete in itself; provided,
of course, that they be capable of composition. We will call
these and all that particularly relates to them Priman. Indeed,
it is almost inevitable that there should be such, since there will
be compound concepts which do not refer to anything, and it
will generally be possible to abstract from the internal
construction that makes them compound, whereupon they become
indecomposable elements.
  296. In secundo, there is no a priori reason why there should
not be indecomposable elements which are what they are
relatively to a second but independently of any third. Such, for
example, is the idea of otherness. We will call such ideas and all
that is marked by them Secundan (i.e., dependent on a second).
  297. In tertio there is no a pricri reason why there should
not be indecomposable elements which are what they are
relatively to a second and a third, regardless of any fourth. Such,
for example, is the idea of composition. We will call everything
marked by being a third or medium of connection, between a
first and second anything, tertian.
  298. It is a priori impossible that there should be an
indecomposable element which is what it is relatively to a second,
a third, and a fourth. The obvious reason is that that which
combines two will by repetition combine any number. *
Nothing could be simpler; nothing in philosophy is more important.
  299. We find then a priori that there are three categories of
undecomposable elements to be expected in the phaneron: those
which are simply positive totals, those which involve
dependence but not combination, those which involve combination.
  Now let us turn to the phaneron and see what we find in fact.

  * Thus stated, the principle does not seem to extend to abnumerable
multitudes. Yet it must extend to them because, after all, the abnumerable is defined
by means of combinations of two, and indeed must be so, since there is no form
of combination not reducible to that.

  313. A mere presentment may be a sign. When the
traditional blind man said he thought scarlet must be something like
the sound of a trumpet, he had caught its blatancy very well;
and the sound is certainly a presentment, whether the color ** is
so or not. Some colors are called gay, others sad. The
sentiment of tones is even more familiar; that is, tones are signs of
visceral qualities of feeling. But the best example is that of
odors, for these are signs in more than one way. It is a common
observation that odors bring back old memories. This I think
must be due, in part at least, to the fact that, whether from the
peculiar connection of the olfactory nerve with the brain or
from some other cause, odors have a remarkable tendency to

 * From "The Basis of Pragmatism," Notebook II, c. 1905.
 ** "As to colors, there is a somewhat serious dimculty in regarding them as
presentments, because we cannot regard them as simple elements as long as they
are contaminated with spaceextension, which is something easily
distinguishable and is also plainly not priman, since the space ca nnot of its nature be limited.
Now the color not only cannot be dissociated from space, but it cannot even be
prescinded from it. It can only be distinguished from it. We may, however,
neglect the spatial element, and so reduce its emphasis indefinitely; and I am
inclined to think that somehow colors may be regarded as presentments, though
I cannot very clearly thread my way through the difficulty." -- From "The
Basis of Pragmatism," Notebook I, c. 1905.

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presentmentate themselves, that is to occupy the entire field of
consciousness, so that one almost lives for the moment in a
world of odor. Now in the vacuity of this world, there is
nothing to obstruct the suggestions of association. That is one
way, namely by contiguous association, in which odors are
particularly apt to act as signs. But they also have a
remarkable power of calling to mind mental and spiritual qualities.
This must be an effect of resemblance-association, if under
resemblance-association we include all natural associations of
different ideas. I certainly would do this; for I do not know
what else resemblance can consist in.
  A lady's favorite perfume seems to me somehow to agree
with that of her spiritual being. If she uses none at all her
nature will lack perfume. If she wears violet she herself will
have the very same delicate fineness. Of the only two I have
known to use rose, one was an artistic old virgin, a grande
dame; the other a noisy young matron and very ignorant; but
they were strangely alike. As for those who use heliotrope,
frangipanni, etc., I know them as well as I desire to know them.
Surely there must be some subtle resemblance between the
odor and the impression I get of this or that woman's nature.

  350. Thus mathematical considerations, by which I mean
study as purely a priori and necessary as thought can be, have
suggested and indeed insisted upon a classification of the
elements of the phaneron, and so of the functions of the mind, and
of the nervous system, of protoplasm itself, which empirical
science will find very convenient. Instead of the familiar
division of Tetens or Kant which makes pleasure-pain, cognition,

  * From an unidentified fragment.|p179

and volition the three categories of mental phenomena, we
have feeling or quality, the action of opposition, and synthetic
thought.
  351. As to protoplasm, what the three cenopythagorean
categories, as I call them, do, and what they are limited to doing,
is to call attention to three very different characters of this
chemical body. The first is a posse which it has in itself; for the
priman stops at can-bes and never reaches to existence, which
depends on interaction, or secundanity. This internal power
which the category merely suggests, we recognize as that of
feeling. Though it is priman, it is without any doubt
dependent upon the extreme complexity of the protoplasmic molecule,
if the word molecule can be applied to so intricate, unstable,
and ununified a system. But it is the law of high numbers that
extreme complication with a great multitude of independent
similars results in a new simplicity. Next there is reactive
force, a twoness, which is emphasized in the nerve cells
together. It is the property by which any state of high
cohesiveness tends to spread through the albuminoid matter. We
usually call the property contractility. Thirdly, the
categories suggest our looking for a synthetizing law; and this we
find in the power of assimilation, incident to which is the
habittaking faculty. This is all the categories pretend to do. They
suggest a way of thinking; and the possibility of science
depends upon the fact that human thought necessarily
partakes of whatever character is diffused through the whole
universe, and that its natural modes have some tendency to be
the modes of action of the universe.
  352. In the study of logic I have found the
cenopythagorean categories unlock many a secret.