Relative term

A relative term is a logical term that requires reference to any number of other objects, called the correlates of the term, in order to denote a definite object, called the rèlate^‡ of the relative term in question.  A relative term is typically expressed in ordinary language by means of a phrase with explicit or implicit blanks, for example, “lover of __”, or “giver of __ to __”.

‡ Pronounced with the accent on the first syllable.

Rhema, Rheme

Here's a note I added to the InterSciWiki article on Relative Terms the last time questions about rhemes or rhemata came up.

I wanted to check out some impressions I formed many years ago — this would have been the late 1960s and probably mainly from CP 3 and 4 — about Peirce's use of the words rhema, rheme, rhemata, etc.

• CP 2.95, 250-265, 272, 317, 322, 379, 409n
• CP 3.420-422, 465, 636
• CP 4.327, 354, 395n, 403, 404, 411, 438, 439, 441, 446, 453, 461, 465, 470, 474, 504, 538n, 560, 621

Reviewing the variations and vacillations in Peirce's usage over the years, I've decided to avoid those terms for now.  As I am realizing more and more in recent years, analyzing and classifying signs as a substitute for analyzing and classifying objects is the first slip of a slide into nominalism, namely, the idea that the essence or reality of objects is contained in the signs we use to describe them.

Resources

• Logic Syllabus

Document history

Portions of the above article were adapted from the following sources under the GNU Free Documentation License, under other applicable licenses, or by permission of the copyright holders.

• Relative Term, InterSciWiki
• Relative Term, Wikiversity
• Relative Term, Wikipedia