释义 |
thirdness Philos. [f. third a. + -ness.] The quality or state of belonging to a third category or of being a third element, spec. in the philosophy of C. S. Peirce (1839–1914), that which connects, mediates between, etc., the ontological categories that he designated as firstness and secondness (cf. secondness).
c1875C. S. Peirce Coll. Papers (1931) I. §337. 170 (heading) Examples of thirdness. Ibid. 171 Continuity represents Thirdness almost to perfection. 1914W. De Morgan When Ghost meets Ghost i. xx. 219 The first person plural pronoun, used as a dual by a lady to a gentleman, sometimes makes hay of the thirdness of their respective persons singular. 1934Mind XLIII. 490 Thirdness includes the meaning of signs, the conception of general laws, ‘infinity, continuity, diffusion, growth, and intelligence’... It is the category that is concerned with connecting, and it is involved in all reflective thought. 1978Sci. Amer. July 19/3 Thirdness concerns two things ‘mediated’ by a third, for example an apple falling from a tree. The tree and the apple are linked by the relation ‘falling from’. |