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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
[edit]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
[edit]Document history
[edit]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.
