> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Christopher Walker
> Sent: 31 October 2007 00:27
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: sentimentality & 'classism' Re: New at Sharp Sand
>
> <snip>
> Far from being 'worse' than induction (if I interpret your list as a
> progression) [abduction] is, as Peirce says, the only logical mode that is
> creative [PC]
> <snip>
>
> In the Peircean world abduction is hypothesis viewed as procedure,
following
> hunches and identifying signs (which may or may not be there) and which
may
> or may not in turn be seen as mediating overall resemblances: 'Gosh! I do
> believe that inkblot looks a bit like Uncle Freddy.' (The consequences
which
> should flow from that stab in the dark are then itemised by deduction:
'Now
> does it capture Uncle Freddy's mad, staring eyes or just his snaggle
toothed
> grin?') After which induction comes in as a sort of testing of the whole
> hypothesising process: 'Ho-hum, apparently one of those unreliable
narrators
> just made up that stuff about the inkblot after all.' So the more exiguous
> the amount of determinate information made available the more *you* do the
> creating. And in that sense it _is_ worse.
>
> Cage, I think, is interesting in this context. But then I tend to find
Cage
> interesting in a number of contexts...
>
> As to orthography, *adduction* is adducing facts; so I don't think that
will
> do. Just think of Peirce (and others) attempting to run a band: 'OK
> trumpets, take it away!' Or of *leading off* as commencement. That's
> *abduction*.
Thanks Christopher -- a matter for further thought. It is the case that the
relevant senses of abduction and adduction are given as opposites in OED.
For my purpose -- which is more a matter of passing through Peirce to
understand creativity than stopping at Peirce to make sense of his
multi-faceted world -- 'leading toward' or 'leading on' (adduction) is more
to the point than 'leading away/from' (abduction). Certainly the claim that
'toward/on' is "what Peirce meant" is unwarranted.
I think, though, that the 'toward/from' axis is already contained in this
modality; how induction fits with it depends, in part, on whether you
consider the syllogistic framework to be ostensive or performative. This is
intriguing because, in abductive mode, one is much more inclined to ask "how
many urns are there" before agreeing that the red balls in your
interlocutor's hand came from the urn marked "red balls".
P
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