Abstract:

The article attempts a semiotic analysis of the "humble argument," the most inward one of a nest of three arguments presented by Peirce in his 1908 essay "A Neglected Argument for the Reality of God." The analysis is based on the system of ten trichotomies Peirce developed in 1905 but never explained. The article (1) tries to establish which element of an argument acts as the sign, which element acts as the object, and which element acts as the interpretant, (2) sets out to identify structural differences between seme-abducents, pheme-abducents, and delome-abducents, and (3) draws conclusions concerning the humble argument.