Exploring Peirce’s speculative grammar: The immediate object of a sign

Abstract

The paper argues against what I call the “Fregean interpretation” of Peirce’s distinction between the immediate and the dynamic object of a sign, according to which Peirce’s dynamic object is akin to Frege’s Bedeutung, while Peirce’s immediate object is akin to Frege’s Sinn. After having exposed the Fregean interpretation, I briefly reconstruct the genesis of Peirce’s notion of immediate object in his semiotic writings of the years 1904–1909 and defend the view that, according to Peirce, only propositions have immediate objects. Includes: Comment by Helmut Pape (pp. 416–418).

Keywords

• Charles Peirce
• Gottlob Frege
• sense
• reference
• meaning
• immediate object