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Between bets and rational choices

2023, Veritas

OPEN ACCESS VERITAS (PORTO ALEGRE) Revista de Filosofia da PUCRS Veritas, Porto Alegre, v. 68, n. 1, p. 1-13, jan.-dez. 2023 e-ISSN: 1984-6746 | ISSN-L: 0042-3955 http://dx.doi.org/10.15448/1984-6746.2023.1.44913 SEÇÃO: EPISTEMOLOGIA E FILOSOFIA DA LINGUAGEM Between bets and rational choices: conjectures on the fraying of time under intense action of chance Entre apostas e escolhas racionais: conjecturas sobre o desgaste do tempo sob intensa ação do acaso Entre apuestas y elecciones racionales: conjeturas sobre el desgaste del tiempo bajo la intensa acción del azar Ivo A. Ibri1 orcid.org/0000-0003-3801-3061 [email protected] Recebido em: 05 jun. 2023. Aprovado em: 06 set. 2023. Publicado em: 22 nov. 2023. Abstract: Starting from the exposition of the fundamental guiding principles of Peirce’s philosophy, mainly, its three categories viewed under his Phenomenology and its correlated Ontology, I conjecture about three possible dimensions of Time, considering the function of predicting the future course of events with varying degrees of certainty as the main role of our human rationality. In these three dimensions, the affection of the first of the three Peircean categories occurs with differentiated intensity, this first category precisely the one that includes the way of being of the incidence of Chance, either in the course of a natural Chronos, or in the course of a temporality produced by human actions, or also equally having incidence in the spontaneity of a subjective time, assumed here as Kairós. Inspired by the recent experience of the pandemic that devastated all corners of the planet, this conjecture suggests dimensions of a temporality frayed ontologically in different degrees, leading to a corresponding fraying of our predictive rationality, imposing upon us the condition of being characters who are left to bet on the course of future factuality to the detriment of choices that would be feasible if a history circumscribed by an intense incidence of Chance had not occurred. Keywords: Peirce; pragmatism; semiotics; chance; time. Resumo: A partir da exposição das diretrizes fundamentais da filosofia de Peirce, principalmente suas três categorias vistas sob sua Fenomenologia e sua correlata Ontologia, conjecturo sobre três possíveis dimensões do Tempo, considerando como principal papel de nossa humana racionalidade sua função de predizer com graus variados de certeza o curso futuro dos fatos. Nessas três dimensões incidem com intensidade diferenciada a primeira das três categorias peircianas, justamente a que inclui o modo de ser da incidência do Acaso, seja no curso de um Chronos natural, seja no curso de uma temporalidade produzida pelas ações humanas, ou seja também igualmente incidente na espontaneidade de um tempo subjetivo, assumido aqui como Kairós. Inspirada na recente experiência da pandemia que assolou todos os cantos de planeta, essa conjectura sugere dimensões de uma temporalidade ontologicamente esgarçada em graus distintos acarretando um correspondente esgarçamento de nossa racionalidade preditiva impondo-nos a condição de personagens a quem resta apostar sobre o curso da faticidade futura em detrimento de escolhas que seriam factíveis caso uma história circunstanciada por intenso Acaso não houvesse ocorrido. Palavras-chave: Peirce; pragmatismo; semiótica; acaso; tempo. Resumen: Partiendo de la exposición de los principios rectores fundamenta- Artigo está licenciado sob forma de uma licença Creative Commons Atribuição 4.0 Internacional. 1 les de la filosofía de Peirce, principalmente, sus tres categorías vistas bajo su Fenomenología y su Ontología correlativa, conjeturo acerca de tres posibles dimensiones del Tiempo, considerando la función de predecir el curso futuro de los acontecimientos con diversos grados de la certeza como el papel principal de nuestra racionalidad humana. En estas tres dimensiones, la afección de la primera Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUCSP), São Paulo, SP, Brasil. 2/13 Veritas, Porto Alegre, v. 68, n. 1, p. 1-13, jan.-dez. 2023 | e-44913 de las tres categorías peirceanas se da con intensidad diferenciada, siendo esta primera categoría precisamente la que engloba el modo de ser de la incidencia del Azar, ya sea en el transcurso de un Chronos natural, ya sea en el curso de una temporalidad producida por las acciones humanas, o también teniendo igualmente incidencia en la espontaneidad de un tiempo subjetivo, asumido aquí como Kairós. Inspirada en la experiencia reciente de la pandemia que asoló todos los rincones del planeta, esta conjetura sugiere dimensiones de una temporalidad deshilachada ontológicamente en diferentes grados, lo que lleva a un correspondiente deshilachamiento de nuestra racionalidad predictiva, imponiéndonos la condición de personajes que quedan. apostar por el curso de la factualidad futura en detrimento de elecciones que serían factibles si no se hubiera producido una historia circunscrita por una intensa incidencia del Azar. Palabras clave: Peirce; pragmatismo; semiótica; azar; tiempo. predicate of alterity, which as we know, derives from the Latin term alter - other. The others to us and the others to one another define categorically the concept of existing. Finally, thirdness, to complete the famous triadic character of Peircean thought, is where the general representations of otherness will be, insofar as otherness demonstrates habits, redundancy, which allow us to know the rules of conduct that govern the regularity in its appearance, even if never in an exact way, and with degrees of dispersion in relation to what Peirce calls Law – widely understood as the laws governing the conduct of individuals. I describe the ontological condition of thirdness first because it is the condi- 1 Some axial concepts of Peirce’s philosophy Scholars of Peirce know that one of the core axes of his philosophy are his three categories, namely firstness, secondness and thirdness. They appear genetically in his Phenomenology and then extend to his Metaphysics, structuring the modes of being of our experience and of reality itself, respectively. Firstness, in general, is associated phenomenologically with feelings on its inner side, while irregular, accidental, asymmetrical phenomena evidence the outer side of this category. Reactions to our ego by a non-ego, in the form of the experience of our human errors, among which can be included forecasts, false expectations, and the insolence of the facts that force entry as unexpected accidents, constitute the general phenomenology of the category of secondness. It is thus conceived also as a mode of being of reality, found in Peirce’s philosophy in the concept of existence, which constitutes the array of spatiotemporally defined facts. This factual-existential character is what definitively enables this category to harbor its predicate of reaction, whether against our consciousness or among the facts themselves in their individuality and definability of being hic et nunc. To secondness, we can attribute the 2 3 tion for the possibility of our mediations, namely, our representations of otherness, through which it will no longer react against our purposes to the extent that it has been represented in its conduct. It is possible to know, however approximately and fallibly2, how the other will behave in future time, making it possible to program, plan, how we will act in relation to it. Otherness, therefore, must allow itself to be interpreted, in order for us to exercise our rationality, which, after all, has the essential mission of foreseeing the future course of facts. All that our rationality can hope for, and, in fact, what endows it with meaning, is to produce semiosis that adheres to the course of phenomena3. What is important for the sequence of what I intend to expose hereafter is to certify that phenomenologically the three categories are characterized as modes of being of our experience; of free feeling devoid of the world’s otherness, of perceiving the reaction of the world that interrupts our consciousness of mere feeling, and of a consciousness of mediating in a continuum of a time represented within us. On the other hand, ontologically, the categories as modes of being that are symmetrical to our experience, undoing the dichotomy between appearing and being, and are present within the three constitutive principles of reality, namely Chance, Existence, Fallibilism is one important doctrine of Peirce’s epistemology. See, for instance Pierce (1931, paragraph 173). See Liszka (1996). On the concept of the adherence between representation and facts, see Ibri (2022). Ivo A. Ibri Between bets and rational choices: conjectures on the fraying of time under intense action of chance 3/13 and Law (IBRI, 2017). The explicit categorical Kairós can adhere to Chronos in varying degrees symmetry of Peirce’s philosophy definitively links of intensity. In the exercise of our mediating ratio- epistemology and ontology, in which the latter nality, Kairós must be synchronized to Chronos, so becomes a logical condition of possibility for the that our logical interpretants result in energetic former. No cognition would be possible without interpretants directed to ends that are themselves the logical-semiotic structures of our signical somehow incorporated in Chronos7. To represent representations of the world being legitimated by otherness in a cognitive manner means to do so an ontological logic that is associated with objec- in Chronos, that is, according to the manner its tive reality (SANTAELLA, 2009). This claim is the conduct is inserted in an objective reality, in which simplest and direct consequence of Peirce’s rea- this conduct can manifest itself as a phenomenon lism, which has its roots in the scholastic realism in its factual secondness. of Scotus, quite different from a contemporary Peirce considers Chronos as a real continuum realism simply opposed to a subjective idealism . (PEIRCE, 1933, paragraph 172)8, although there This basic condition of Peircean realism, often must be some point of discontinuity in it so that obfuscated by the fascination that our language Chance, as a principle, may be able to act in and semiotic creativity exerts over our minds, existence without, contradictorily, being a result leading us to a nominalist philosophical stan- of the past or binding its actions to a future. This ce that, in fact, conceals and reduces the true, detachment of Chance in relation to the conti- broadly heuristic potential of Peirce’s thought, nuum of thirdness of time demands that in this which lies far beyond tediously anthropocentric continuum there is some point of discontinuity philosophies . in the present, precisely because it is situated 4 5 between past and future. 2 The three dimensions of Time Kairós, when independent from Chronos, flows in us by means of an absolutely present state of 2.1 Chronos and Kairós In previous texts, I have proposed the consideration of two dimensions of time, namely, Chronos and Kairós (IBRI, 2022). The first denotes the cosmic, objective, therefore, universal time. For this reason, it is associated with the third ontological category, as a condition for the possibility of natural laws6. The second would be a time of internal nature, a feeling of time, one possible representation of real time, which consciousness. Just as an illustrative example, let only the sound of Bach’s Cello Suite #1 flow through our consciousness. A consciousness inhabited only by qualisigns has its own temporality, free from worldly time. Peirce emphasizes in a passage how this hiatus of internal time, which here I am calling Kairós, is also verified in real time, Chronos9. Kairós thus flows transversally to Chronos through its present point, as illustrated in the figure below10: can be totally separated from Chronos in certain situations of pure experiences of firstness, such as in experiences of aesthetic nature. However, I discuss this difference in Ibri (2022, p. 230-231). See also Anderson (1995). 6 See Schmidt (2022) for a detailed analysis of the passages in which Peirce describes his realist position in relation to time and explicitly affirms that time is of the nature of a law. 7 For an approach on the relation between time and subjective mediation, see Tienne (2015). 8 See Sfendoni-Mentzou (2008) for an analysis of Peirce’s argument for time as a real continuum of dynamic nature, characterized by its potentiality. 9 Pierce (1935, paragraph 86): “Yet it undoubtedly is true that the permanence of chance effects is due to the independence of the instants of time. How are we to resolve this puzzle? The solution of it lies in this, that time has a point of discontinuity at the present. This discontinuity appears in one form in conservative actions where the actual instant differs from all other instants absolutely, while those others only differ in degree; and the same discontinuity appears in another form in all non-conservative action, where the past is broken off from the future as it is in our consciousness”. 10 I have proposed the relation between these two already in Ibri (2022). 4 5 4/13 Veritas, Porto Alegre, v. 68, n. 1, p. 1-13, jan.-dez. 2023 | e-44913 Figure 1 – The transversal relation between Kairós and Chronos Source: Elaborated by the author (2023). In fact, this relation is present in certain types human action, defining the context of its differen- of experience in which the world, in its aspect tiated history, with its own distinctive otherness. of secondness, as a furnishing of facts, can be Therefore, let us first consider Chronos in its put in parentheses, namely, when we report to cosmic dimension, that is, as associated with the it only for its immediate qualities or suppress it laws of Nature. When we consider Evolutionism completely for an aesthetic experience through as one of the key doctrines of Peirce’s philosophy, human art11. In both cases, this is an disinterested we find within it the answer about how such laws experience regarding the object, whose character became formed, concomitantly with the formation consisting merely of free play is emphasized in of Time itself. Peirce’s Cosmology suggests the the aesthetics of Kant and Schopenhauer , for hypothesis that the categories took form sequen- example. tially from Firstness to Thirdness. This means 12 However, Kairós must seek to adhere to Chro- that the continua of the formless qualities of the nos when our consciousness is within the expe- first category gave rise to the logically shaped rience of otherness and, consequently, is inclined continua of the third, in which time also took form to seek a mediating thirdness that might represent in its cosmic dimension. Therefore, we can affirm real thirdness, to be in synchrony with it and, the- that the laws of Nature had their origin in Chance refore, with the dimension of Chronos to which it – and influencing this vector from the first to the is linked. In this exercise of rationality, our internal third category, according to Peirce’s evolutionism, time seeks to synchronize with real time, the one there is an agglutinating, generalizing principle, that elapses as otherness, independent from he calls Agapism (HAUSMAN, 1994). us. Only through this synchrony does it appear As complex as this theme of Peircean philoso- that our predictions about the future course of phy is, which I developed in detail in a previous events can be successful, that is, they maintain work (IBRI, 2017), it is important to emphasize here adherence with their real course. that the formation of thirdness and time happens However, the development of this essay gave in the context of an evolution still in progress, rise to a reconsideration of Chronos that complexi- justifying why the continua of time and laws are fies it and details it phenomenologically, making it not perfect, even now interacting with Chance. two-dimensional, as will be shown subsequently. The laws of Nature appear phenomenologically to evidence dispersions around average values 2.2 On the temporality of human history At this point, it is an interesting conjecture to conceive of a different dimension of time associated not to a class of phenomena belonging to natural history, but to a factuality produced by 11 12 that demand probabilistic representations. Time, in turn, must have a hiatus in its present point, so that this interaction of Chance with Law may be possible. This hiatus in cosmic Chronos time is related, in the context of Peirce’s cosmology, See also Innis (2013). An approach to this concept in both authors can be found in Vandenabeele (2012). Ivo A. Ibri Between bets and rational choices: conjectures on the fraying of time under intense action of chance 5/13 to the phenomenological experience of firstness deeper reflection on it here (COLAPIETRO, 1989; as being pure presentness. NÖTH, 2021), let us for now admit that the other It is true that although the laws of Nature pre- natural beings act according to rules accumulated sent dispersions due to the incidence of Chance, evolutionarily in the form of the predicates of each there is a sufficient degree of regularity in them species, and that they, species, are in a process to allow us to know them with different degrees of dynamic equilibrium, that is, that all actions, of probability, as is the case, for example, from albeit conflictive, of fights, of violent disputes, the field of astronomy to the field of gas theory concur to a final equilibrium of the natural system or quantum mechanics, providing the natural as a whole. In summary, the range of choices sciences with a growing and certain development other natural beings possess is inscribed within (HOUSER, 2014). their respective species, including accidental Nonetheless, there is another reality beyond variations that may occur in each factual situation. that of a cosmic nature. It is the one configured All of these predicates converge toward a basic by human history; the one Hegel used to simply purpose: the preservation of life. call History. A history of knowledge, of culture, of There are myriad narratives of scientific nature those facts produced by human beings. In this and also in the arts regarding creative rituals of history, how might we consider the interactivity the beings of Nature that, along with their saga of the categories? To what measure might it be of survival, seem to celebrate their existence with affected by the degrees of freedom of the first dances, songs, and displays of beauty. For that category’s principle of spontaneity? matter, this display that captivated philosophies It is worth considering here that we, human such as German Romanticism, is also found in the beings, are more subject to the incidences of the various forms matter assumes and the manifesta- first category, mainly due to our capacity to feel tions of its qualities, displaying free action, without and our capacity to break rules, habits, and even a necessary connection to the teleology of life. with Chronos time itself in our consciousness, Our self-consciousness directs us to choices plunging it into experiences typical of firstness, beyond those that would be simply inscribed such as the mere disinterested contemplation within the demands of our species. We exercise of Nature or the unmediated enjoyment of a our freedom within mundane limits, or we subvert work of art. them with our imagination, creating possible worl- Phenomenologically, Nature has mechanis- ds that can be externalized in the form of the arts ms of homeostasis that come from a cosmic or kept within us as unrealized possibilities, which temporality incomparable in scope to the scale become imbibed with the absence of otherness of human time. This ‘youthfulness’ of human and traverse our unconscious metaphorically13. existence implies a greater incidence of firstness However, as mundane characters, we set the in human behavior, entailing spontaneity, an er- objects of our desire in time, as goals to be achie- ratic nature, the formation of habits that can be ved by means of plans that we hope will reaso- broken through experiences of otherness and nably follow the course of events, maintaining a other important characteristics, also associated certain adherence to them. One may ask, however, with the first category, originating from an internal what facts are these? What governs them? Would world of which we are at least partially aware, it not be appropriate to distinguish two classes of reminding us of the concept of the unconscious facts, namely, one that is constituted by a cosmic proposed by Freud. structure, governed by the laws of Nature, and Self-consciousness is a property considered typically human throughout the history of philosophy. Although it would be difficult to go into a 13 See also Barrena and Nubiola (2019). another that follows possible laws of a history, created by us humans? These two classes would then be related to the 6/13 Veritas, Porto Alegre, v. 68, n. 1, p. 1-13, jan.-dez. 2023 | e-44913 two classes of temporality as I will suggest below. pathway towards these future goals we expect The first of them, already mentioned, is cosmic to encounter reactions proper to the secondness time, associated with the laws of Nature. It is a that typifies the otherness of reality, as Peirce time that we can conceptualize as foundational, states. In the face of them, we also have the ex- a basis, from which all others would be variations, pectation that we will know how to find mediations each one of them subject to the respective phe- indicative of that conduct which has the highest nomenological characteristics that must always probability of success. Logical interpretants ra- accompany the very definition of temporality. tionally determining the energetic interpretants Cosmic time, whose flow is structured by the laws of Nature, receives the incidence of Chance in the direction of the dynamic objects that we presume to be reachable. and, therefore, impresses a point of discontinuity Although we situate our future objects in Chro- in the present, in such a way that the facts that nos and hope to find the mediations that will lead both produce possess degrees of freedom that us to them, the interposing path is not subject to make laws approximate, of a probabilistic nature. laws that can be known with a degree of plausi- These relations between Chance, Factual Existen- bility and verisimilitude, such as those the natural ce and Law, make up the interaction of Peirce’s sciences come in contact with. The cognition of three categories, that is, firstness, secondness natural objects is bound to an ontological third- and thirdness, in this order (IBRI, 2017). ness that reveals its lineage over time, as affirms It is interesting to note phenomenologically the well-known Peircean expression “in the long that the presence of Chance is made evident run”15 that characterizes the third stage of his logic in every asymmetry and irregularity that Nature of investigation, namely, induction, responsible presents, marking similarities with differences for gathering spatiotemporal experimental data – both predicates coexist in objects. This con- of the object of cognition. ditions what can be generalized, namely, those Let it be said that the pure sciences that deal predicates under law, which are the ones that with the cognition of natural objects and the receive names, while those predicates under applied sciences that generate technology de- chance, non-generalizable, constitute nameless pend to a certain degree on human history, in the things14. A myriad of nameless things marks all sense of defining policies that list priorities and facts, and these do not lend themselves to the allocate resources for their achievement. Beyond formation of concepts due to the impossibility these circumstances, in a way, there is no other of their generalization. We only have access to obstacle of an epistemological or ontological them when we abdicate the mediations that are nature, since natural history is under a logically formed logically, precisely by what, in things, is well-defined thirdness, dealing with objects who- susceptible to generalization. se conduct is sufficiently explicit and, therefore, However, this would inaugurate an alternative open to logical cognition. This is not the case, it way of experiencing those aspects marginalized should be said, with respect to human history, by concepts, whose main function is to provide which is guided by social and individual values a basis for predicting the future course of ex- driving its actions. perience, introducing our factual expectations It is interesting to point out that Pragmatism in the continuum of Chronos. We deposit into (FABBRICHESI, 2008; NUBIOLA, 2021), from the Chronos many objects of desire, goals of various point of view of its rule of meaning, which also natures, and we seek paths that will lead us to translates the condition of an object’s cognos- them successfully. cibility, applies to both histories. Understanding It is reasonable to suppose that along the 14 15 this rule according to the way in which ideas af- I suggested this concept in Ibri (2022, p. 51). See, for example, Pierce (1935, paragraph 534) and Pierce (1958, paragraphs 124 and 207). Ivo A. Ibri Between bets and rational choices: conjectures on the fraying of time under intense action of chance 7/13 fect conduct and radicalizing it to its ontological verbial otherness. Such limiting constrictions are face that is expressed by the manner in which recognized by philosophies that preach a broad the general affects the particular, as would be realism, as Peirce’s categories state. Anthropo- provided given the relationship between the three centric philosophies that not infrequently make categories in light of Peirce’s realism, it is worth no distinction of reality from fiction, in a kind of reflecting how, within this approach, one could exacerbation of the possibility of constitution distinguish the way in which pragmatism would of the world by the subject or by language, im- read each of these histories. mersed in an often-verifiable sterile nominalism, Conduct is what can be observed as the outer side of beings, whether natural or human, while attribute to human beings a historical role that tacitly conceals a prevailing Cartesian dualism. the inner side, one could say, constitutes the Human history is thus constituted by the whole ideas that govern the way these beings act - of our culture: our knowledge, our science, our the way they, in fact, introduce themselves as arts, by a technology that populates the planet characters in their respective histories. Here it is with objects that, because they are mediations in worth bringing to the fore Peirce’s well-known relation to Nature, as the case of the emergence statement (PIERCE, 1934, paragraphs 264-317; of cities, became ends in themselves, as the great PIERCE, 1992, paragraphs 28-55) that knowledge megalopolises show. of inner worlds is only feasible by the way they Our freedom of choice, mobilized by objects of desire, has given rise to a reading of our history in appear on their outer side. It is worth asking, what would differentiate which proceeds a parade of ideologies, beliefs of the natural and the human inner worlds ? In all kinds, power struggles, genocidal wars, framed light of the ontological face of pragmatism, the by the highest art of music, poetry, and the fine conduct of natural beings fully expresses their arts. This reading could, perhaps, metaphorically interior side, understanding such interiority as synthesize our history as a great operatic drama18. the continuum of predicates that constitutes Returning to the spirit, rather than the letter, each species, whether living or merely material. of Peirce’s philosophy, we could say that we are This amounts to saying that there is nothing in depositaries of an especially intense presence of the interiority of these characters that does not firstness in our interiority, leaving us permeated appear phenomenically to cognition. by emotional interpretants that, many times, 16 The same cannot be said about the human predominate over logical interpretants. Emotional example. We are differentiated beings in this interpretants, in their formless continuum, when aspect, inasmuch as we are able to safeguard dissociated from logical ones, introduce us in an internal world over which we have nearly the hiatus of the present time, because they do complete autonomy. I say nearly, because our not contain in themselves, by their own nature, unconscious is the depository of signs about the possibility of a mediatory reading of the tem- which we know almost nothing, or very little, poral course of the facts. Their characteristic of despite the fact that they influence our behavior, immediacy directs us, one might say, towards as Freudian psychoanalysis repeatedly affirms . energetic interpretations with no logical destina- 17 It is suitable to consider that we have degrees tion, submitting us to the accidentality of Chance. of inner freedom whose limitation can only be The possibility of choices without the coercion imposed by the constraints of a world structured of rules associated with a logical self-control gives by rules that are their own, constituting their pro- us an illusion of freedom whose philosophical 16 It is worth mentioning that the philosophy of Schelling, one of the authors that Peirce admired, enables us to think about this difference, highlighting the distinct freedom of human interiority with regard to natural beings. 17 There is a quite interesting metaphor created by Peirce called bottomless lake of consciousness, based on which I have written “The Bottomless Lake of Firstness: conjectures on the Heuristic Power of Consciousness. Semiotica” (IBRI, 2021). In this essay, there is a conjecture on the discover of the unconscious by Peirce before Freud has consolidated it as a psychological concept. 18 Topa (2016) makes an interesting argument for a Peircean reading of history contemplating some of the elements we have cited here. 8/13 Veritas, Porto Alegre, v. 68, n. 1, p. 1-13, jan.-dez. 2023 | e-44913 treatment, worth remembering, goes back to an intense incidence of Chance. This incidence Aristotle’s ethics (ARISTOTLE, 2009) when he is due not only to emotional interpretants devoid questions who would be the free man: the one of predictive power, but also, and mainly, to the who follows his immediate will or the one who disconnection between particular goals that rationally deliberates what he should do? Time end up directing the course of events towards and non-time have long confronted each other destinations often defined by pure secondness, in human conduct. strength and power games, and consequently, far It is important for us here to associate both interpretants with time. However, although we from a desirable thirdness that would reconcile them for social cohabitation. consider Chronos as the universal time associated No wonder Peirce calls the reduction of a ge- with the most invariable cosmic character of na- nuine thirdness degeneracy, namely, that which tural facts, such as those of astronomy, we could acts as an integrating mediation of otherness in think of the sequencing of our human history, as semiotic networks, to relations of mere second- already considered, as being depository of our ness, whose nature is characterized by action and objects of desire. This sequencing is associated reaction, and which could very well model a cer- to random factors with an incidence that leads us tain aspect of the concept of dialectical synthesis to conceive of an ontology of its own, founded not that implies the overcoming of otherness rather in the regularity of natural facts, but in the dyna- than its possible cohabitating logical integration19. mism of those facts generated by human action. It is important to emphasize the hypothesis that It seems difficult to see in the history of our historical time is constituted within the phenome- culture the expression of a rationality that, even nology of human actions, and both it and natural if approached dialectically to account for its anti- phenomenology are subject to the three Peircean thetical conflicts as Hegel proposes, would be free categories. However, these ways of being of the of random factors that conspire against a rational phenomena have a different balance in each of understanding of it. Under this view, the Hegelian the two cases, since it is plausible to consider view of history as a saga of the revelation of divine that the share of firstness in human history would Reason seems to become aporetic. We depend be significantly more accentuated than in natural greatly on a normativity of our social conduct history, resulting in the third category being much that seeks to make the conciliation of interests more intensely influenced by the spontaneity of feasible and, especially, a minimally harmonious the first category20. cohabitation among us humans. It is interesting, at this point, to recall the the- It does not seem reasonable to affirm that we oretical guidelines of Peirce’s Objective Idea- have been successful in our historical task. A lism (IBRI, 2017)21. Matter is mind impregnated myriad of choices geared toward merely private by crystallized habits - a kind of mind depleted ends has recurrently frayed the aspiration of by markedly stable habits, which Peirce calls that coexistent harmony, generating all kinds of effete mind, while what we properly call mind is conflicts of interest. constituted by habits with a high degree of insta- Leaving these considerations to remain only bility due to its interactivity with experience. This as a configuration of the scenario of what in fact contrast between the two, matter and mind, does matters to the theme of this essay, let us return to not characterize a relationship of estrangement the hypothesis that there is in the course of human of nature, but exhibits a differentiated spontaneity history a temporality that, it is worth repeating, that is associated with the more pronounced despite being anchored in Chronos, also receives presence of firstness in mind than in matter - in 19 20 21 About genuine vs degenerate categories, see also Kruse (1991). See also Aydin (2009). See also Guardiano (2011). Ivo A. Ibri Between bets and rational choices: conjectures on the fraying of time under intense action of chance 9/13 fact, this difference translates into the capacity a confrontation of two histories that share the to feel and to evidence the predicate of life. The same ideality of the universe of mind but differ so-called living beings are more prone to breaking in the intensity with which the three constitutive their behavioral habits due to their sensitivity to categories of reality are interrelated. the otherness of the environment they inhabit. As Chance incurs upon time in a partial hiatus Mind, therefore, in the light of Peirce’s Objective from its continuum, which is the present, so one Idealism, a doctrine totally inspired by Schelling can conjecture that historical time, thanks to (IBRI, 2022), is defined as carrying habits acquired its being much more intensely permeated by over time, differentiated by its varying degrees of the first category, suffers deviations in direction sensitivity and of life. throughout the course of its thirdness. The recourse to Peircean Idealism in this es- Illustratively, the diagram below seeks to re- say reinforces the differences between natural present this idea, in which there is a linear course history and human history. They are constituted of Nature’s evolution, permeated by Chance in by different agents, that is, on the one hand, the its present point, while human actions, which do evolution of Nature, extensive throughout an not contribute to a coexistent interactivity of a immeasurable temporality when compared to mediating thirdness, present a kind of obliquity in human history and, on the other hand, the set the course of its time, constituted by deviations, of humanity’s actions throughout its relatively blockages, setbacks and fragmentation due to short existence . the frequency and intensity with which human 22 Different degrees of uncertainty emerge in action leaves marks on its factual existence. each of these histories, seen through their objec- Clashes of interests and power games multiply tive characteristics. They arise through Peirce’s the manifestations of otherness, accentuating realism suggesting an ontology that conditions a secondness that particularizes, in its various an epistemology – the uncertainty of signs co- possibilities of ramification, lines of thirdness that mes not from the structure of logic or language, are often irreconcilable. but from the very nature of objects – there is Figure 2 – The relation between Historical Time and Chronos (Cosmic Time) Source: Elaborated by the author (2023). The immediacy of emotional interpretants can way in this history. It is worth saying that of the four interfere in the course of facts, removing them types considered by him, only the scientific type from a possible logical path. The firstness of fe- acts in an increasingly evolutionary and universal elings acts by generating energetic interpretants direction, although it may be slowed down by the that intervene in human history. The range of presence of instances of power guided by minds beliefs enumerated by Peirce acts in a different aligned with the other types of beliefs, as shown 22 For an analysis of how Peirce himself addressed the topic of history in his writings, see also Viola (2020). 10/13 Veritas, Porto Alegre, v. 68, n. 1, p. 1-13, jan.-dez. 2023 | e-44913 in some periods of our history. experienced by humanity, namely, the corona- In a previous essay, I suggested a distinction virus pandemic. Let us explore, for the sake of between two concepts, namely, sensitivity and the theme focused on here, aspects of its acute emotionality (IBRI, 2022). Sensitivity being a term otherness. The first of them, regarding the on- to designate a harmonic combination between tological-epistemological realm, allows us to logical and emotional interpretants, as occurs say that the pandemic itself can be considered in creative insights in the history of science and as a transversal event in the course of historical art. Emotionality, on the other hand, designating time, since it happened accidentally, inciden- the accentuated or almost exclusive predomi- tally, like many occurrences of the same nature nance of emotional interpretants associated with in our history, differing, of course, by its general a receptive factuality of its resulting energetic pervasiveness. interpretants. Purely emotional actions usually In this sphere, social and individual habits were are subject to the blindness of Chance and, as deeply broken, giving rise to acute degrees of a result, are capable of introducing unexpected epistemological discontinuities resulting from facts into the course of history. the raw power of secondness that was this event. A time frayed by its derivations due to unpre- We precariously improvised solutions in order dictable and often arbitrary insertions of energetic to continue our work, while science, amidst poli- interpretants derived from emotional interpre- tical influences, began its mission of discovering tants, on the one hand, and from logical inter- the habits of the virus in order to produce vac- pretants directed to particular purposes, on the cines. As all knowledge in this direction requires other, has a different flow in relation to cosmic time, for the semiotic-inductive long run that time, even though it constantly refers to it . seeks to reduce the distance between immediate 23 With these considerations, let us now contextu- and dynamic objects, the effectiveness of me- alize the phenomenology of human history most dicine seems always to be drawn from a preca- recently affected by the pandemic that raged rious certainty arising from the lack of necessary through every corner of the planet. statistical data to an expected estimable uncertainty, in the long run, to be only the proverbial 3 The many faces of otherness consequence of an ontological indeterminism and epistemological fallibility. 3.1 The Ontological – Epistemological Face A high degree of randomness was considered to pervade human history, in the face of the incidence of actions carried out pragmatically and aimed at particular goals disconnected from a cohabiting and homeostatic thirdness such as that of Nature. Could a social normativity diminish this randomness and make the destinies of particular actions share something like a common good?24 A good theme for semioethics, whose development would lead to a branching of this essay, not feasible at this moment. Let us turn our focus to the period recently 3.2 The Phenomenological Face Our human experience during the pandemic period, as mentioned, was characterized by sharp breaks in social and individual habits. Without going into its geography or details, let us focus on the classical consideration of the concept of anguish in the history of philosophy. Kierkegaard, Sartre, Heidegger, in general, all share it as associated with the exercise of freedom and the consequent need for choice as a defining feature of our human existence. It can be said that this experience of the pandemic, in some way reminiscent of situations For an exploration of the relations between energetic, emotional, and logical interpretants, see Santaella (2016) For a consideration on the relation between normativity and a communitarian effort towards the common good in Peirce, see Liszka (2022). 23 24 Ivo A. Ibri Between bets and rational choices: conjectures on the fraying of time under intense action of chance 11/13 experienced by humanity in periods of war, has with intense degrees of uncertainty, brought introduced another class of anguish: that of the about by the breakdown of mediations, habits of unknown, of the precariousness of dealing with conduct, and so on. Our representation of histo- a future time that is perforated with accidents rical time, phenomenologically, is perceived as and that, in turn, unravels our efforts to fine-tune incapable of containing our objects of desire, as our mediations and life plans with a forecast that if it no longer supported them, making us players adheres to Chronos time. Kairós time in this class who are left only to bet and not beings capable of experience seems to make the uncertainty of making choices by rationally predicting the within us flow through its own channel, creating temporal course of events. an environment where our emotional interpretants Precarious, we can affirm, is that existence that predominate, precisely those lacking in the logical imposes on us the script of players, as if, allowing forms that allow us to predict the consequences ourselves this metaphor, we had to submit our of our actions in time. plans to a roulette wheel, leaving to Chance the The anguish of finitude brought by a reflection encounter with the objects of desire that we had on the human condition, as Heidegger exempla- placed in a history endowed with a visible future, rily characterizes it by designating us as being- contingently shattered by the raw otherness of -towards-death, was exacerbated in this present the unknown. historical period of profound uncertainty by a daily The exercise of our rationality compels us to procession of deaths caused by the pandemic. make feasible choices based on a vision of a con- A distressing state of things, despite being vir- tinuous time defined by a factual history minimally tually distant from the temporally indeterminate ordered within it. The pandemic period recently concept of finitude, became close, recurrent, experienced by all of humanity has revealed a bringing to mind, as mentioned, situations of war, temporality perforated by gaps that prevented it in a manner possibly more accentuated to those from being minimally continuous as a condition close to where they effectively occurred. for the possibility of a social thirdness endowed This anguish, beyond its psychological di- with a predictively successful rationality. mension, is nourished by the raw secondness We can legitimately state that, while cosmic of the unknown, generating a pressing need for time elapses in its typical continuum, historical restitution of our mediations in the face of rea- time does not allow us to adequately tune our lity, made precarious by uncertainty. This is an Kairós time with it, and one reason that becomes experience that confirms the logical importance evident is that our objectives, our conduct towards of our life habits and of mediations that allow for them, depends on a future woven by a historicity the development of plans for the achievement interspersed with discontinuities. of objects deposited in future time (PAPE, 2009; This pandemic crisis made us adopt hygienic PIETARINEN, 2008). A crisis of this nature certainly habits with a frequency hitherto only applicable makes us aware of human vulnerability, intensified in specific places such as hospitals. It is worth in scale by the differences between social clas- considering that the discontinuities of historical ses, evidencing the precariousness of defensive time also brought to us the need to disinfect mediations among the most disadvantaged. This, our internal world, contaminated by a justified among many others, is another possible charac- anguish that comes from the brutal breaking of terizing face of the experience of anguish. habits, mediations, and expectations deposited in points of time fragmented by accident and 4 In conclusion It seems fair to say that under acute conditions of otherness, as characterized by our recent passage through a severe pandemic, are associated uncertainty. This metaphorical disinfection of interiority is deemed to have been made possible by genuine actions of solidarity, albeit certainly socially unbalanced, nevertheless minimizing 12/13 Veritas, Porto Alegre, v. 68, n. 1, p. 1-13, jan.-dez. 2023 | e-44913 human anguish and fragility, somehow nourished by the hope of scientific discoveries, capable of restoring the normal course of life, contingently impregnated as it was by an acute ontologically universal otherness. Phenomenologically, once the normal course of a setting where human history takes place has been restored, despite always being subject to the vicissitudes of Chance, we can once again experience a temporality that, in a way, allows us to plan our future conduct, contrasting it with the memory of recently lived times when we experienced the fragility and dependence of a time frayed by the always brute action of an otherness resistant to being semiotically represented, whose brute force is attenuated by the understanding of its conduct. References ANDERSON, Douglas Richard. Strands of system: the philosophy of Charles Peirce. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press, 1995. ARISTOTLE. The Nicomachean ethics. Translated: David Ross and Edited by Lesley Brown. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009. AYDIN, Ciano. On the significance of ideals: Charles S. Peirce and the good life. Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, Bloomington, v. 45, n. 3, p. 422-443, 2009. 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Ibri Mestre em filosofia pela PUC/SP, doutor em filosofia pela USP com pós-doutorado pelo Institute for Advanced Study of Indiana University, EUA. É professor titular da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, e doutor da Faculdade de São Bento. Seu trabalho de pesquisa situa-se nas áreas de Filosofia Moderna e Contemporânea, com ênfase em epistemologia, pragmatismo, semiótica, estética e metafísica. É fundador do Centro de Estudos do Pragmatismo do Programa de Estudos Pós-graduados em Filosofia da PUC-SP. É membro do corpo de consultores do Peirce Edition Project at Indiana University, EUA, que edita a obra cronológica de Charles S. Peirce. De 2014 a 2016 exerceu a presidência da Charles S. Peirce Society (EUA). Foi eleito em 2020 presidente honorário da Sociedad Peirce em Latina America, fundada no México em 2019. SCHMIDT, Jon Alan. Temporal synechism: a Peircean philosophy of time. Axiomathes, Dordrecht, v. 32, p. 233-269, 2022. 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IBRI Rua Ministro de Godói, 969, sala 4E São Paulo, SP, Brasil Os textos deste artigo foram revisados pela Texto Certo Assessoria Linguística e submetidos para validação dos autores antes da publicação.