Abstract
We show how Peirce's architectonics folds on itself and finds local consequences that correspond to the major global hypotheses of the system. In particular, we study how the pragmaticist maxim (i.e., the pragmatic maxim fully modalized, support of Peirce's architectonics) can be technically represented in Peirce's existential graphs, well-suited to reveal an underlying continuity in logical operations, and can provide suggestive philosophical analogies. Further, using the existential graphs, we formalize — and prove one direction of — a “local proof of pragmaticism,” trying thus to explain the prominent place that existential graphs can play in the architectonics of pragmaticism, as Peirce persistently advocated. Finally, we present a web of “continuous iterations” of some key Peircean concepts (maxim, classification, abduction) that supports a “lattice of partial proofs” of pragmaticism.
© 2011 Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co. KG, Berlin/Boston
