C. S. Peirce’s Generative Categories

After noting an affinity between Peirce and Hegel regarding the task of the philosopher to trace the movement inherent in the forms of thought, the author turns to an explication of the distinctive character of Peircean phaneroscopy. He highlights both the recursivity and the generativity manifest in Peirce’s articulation of his phenomenologically derived categories. In addition, he connects this to what Peirce calls, if only rarely, living reason. He argues that, for Peirce, living reason must assume the form of categoreal reason, that is, the form of a process in which both the life of signs and that of rationality itself exhibit an open-ended, self-transformative character. While the heuristic function of the categories is stressed (the principal function of the Peircean categories being to guide and goad inquiry), their recursive and generative form is equally emphasized. On this occasion, however, special attention is paid to the irrepressible fecundity or generative power of Peirce’s three categories.