Survey of Definition and Determination

[Jon Awbrey]

Survey of Definition and Determination • 3
• https://inquiryintoinquiry.com/2024/01/24/survey-of-definition-and-determination-3/

All,

In the early 1990s, “in the middle of life's journey” as the saying goes,
I returned to grad school in a systems engineering program with the idea
of taking a more systems-theoretic approach to my development of Peircean
themes, from signs and scientific inquiry to logic and information theory.

Two of the first questions calling for fresh examination were the closely
related concepts of definition and determination, not only as Peirce used
them in his logic and semiotics but as researchers in areas as diverse as
computer science, cybernetics, physics, and systems science would find
themselves forced to reconsider the concepts in later years. That led me
to collect a sample of texts where Peirce and a few other writers discuss
the issues of definition and determination. There are copies of those
selections at the following sites.

Collection Of Source Materials
• https://oeis.org/wiki/User:Jon_Awbrey/EXCERPTS

Excerpts on Definition
• https://oeis.org/wiki/User:Jon_Awbrey/EXCERPTS#Definition

Excerpts on Determination
• https://oeis.org/wiki/User:Jon_Awbrey/EXCERPTS#Determination

What follows is a Survey of blog and wiki posts on Definition and Determination,
with a focus on the part they play in Peirce's interlinked theories of signs,
information, and inquiry. In classical logical traditions the concepts of
definition and determination are closely related and their bond acquires
all the more force when we view the overarching concept of constraint from
an information-theoretic point of view, as Peirce did beginning in the 1860s.

Regards,

Jon

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