Charles S. Peirce's Phenomenology

Abstract

No reasonable person would deny that the sound of a falling pin is less intense than the feeling of a hot poker pressed against the skin, or that the recollection of something seen decades earlier is less vivid than beholding it in the present. Yet John Locke is quick to dismiss a blind man’s report that the color scarlet is like the sound of a trumpet, and Thomas Nagel similarly avers that such loose intermodal analogies are of little use in developing an objective phenomenology. Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914), by striking contrast, maintains that the blind man is correct. Peirce’s reasoning stems from his phenomenology, which has received little attention as compared with his logic, pragmatism, or semiotics. Peirce argues that one can describe the similarities and differences between such experiences as seeing a scarlet red and hearing a trumpet’s blare or hearing a falling pin and feeling a hot poker. Drawing on the Kantian idea that the analysis of consciousness should take as its guide formal logic, Peirce contends that we can construct a table of the elements of consciousness, much as Dmitri Mendeleev constructed a table of the chemical elements. By showing that the elements of consciousness fall into distinct classes, Peirce makes significant headway in developing the very sort of objective phenomenology which vindicates the studious blind man Locke derides.

Seeking Awareness of Our Selves and the Environment Through Vocal Improvisation in The Singing Field

“…The places in which we sang influenced the EVE experience directly, not only because of how one sounded in the environment, but also because the physical and aesthetic qualities of the environment influenced the nature of the iteration and provided multisensory feedback. Whether we sang to a leafy trail or an urban structure, I was interested in the perspectives that each individual gained from the performances, including aural, visual, haptic, echolocative (Atkins 2018), and olfactory perspectives. I was also interested in how the qualities of the environment influenced emotion, spirit, and the physical body.…”