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Philosophy and the Second Person: Peirce, Humboldt, Benveniste, and Personal Pronouns as Universals of Communication
- Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society: A Quarterly Journal in American Philosophy
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 47, Number 4, Fall 2011
- pp. 389-420
- 10.2979/trancharpeirsoc.47.4.389
- Article
- Additional Information
In this paper I begin by considering Peirce's early fragments on personal pronouns as metaphysical categories, and I then use some consonances with the work of Wilhelm von Humboldt to construe Peirce's oeuvre as part of a tradition of studies which, halfway between philosophy and linguistics, reflects on personal pronouns as universals of human communication. Upshots of this move are, first, a new point as to the relation between Aristotle and Peirce, and the latter's quest for the universal elements of semiotic phenomena; and second, an assessment of the overall importance of the "second-person standpoint" in Peirce's thought.