Revisionary Early-Peircean Predicate Logic without Proper Names

In his early (1860–1891) pre-Monist writings, Peirce regards logic as involving only ‘general terms’ for universal concepts, thereby excluding proper names as terms of singular reference. Against a background of historical commentary on Peirce’s scattered remarks on the semiotic of denotation, this essay systematically develops a neo-Peircean predicate logic without proper names. Sketching the syntax, semantics, and proof-theoretic requirements for a logic with quantifier-bound variables but no object constants, the logic vindicates in contemporary logical formalism Peirce’s insight that a logic of relatives need not refer to or predicate properties of particular objects by mean of proper names.