In a post to peirce-l on May 23, 2003, Ransdell included the following chapter from an unpublished work in progress, The Meanings in Things (also sometimes called The Meaning in Things). In the chapter, he attempts to answer how it is that an object determines the sign that represents it. The material for the above abstract is from his not quite formal prefatory remarks sent with an earlier version to peirce-l on May 8, 2001. The chapter is a good illustration (...) of Ransdell’s careful argumentation through an extended example, in this case an amusing one involving the counting of chairs.Semiotic is phenomenologically based and thus does not involve any assumptions or presuppositions about the existence or reality of.. (shrink)

Joseph Ransdell posted the following draft of an introduction to a work in progress to the peirce-l email list on September 22, 2000. The post triggered a long thread of discussion in which he participated quite actively. At least one later and much longer version of the introduction exists. Still, this draft will give a concentrated “taste” of a side of Ransdell more familiar perhaps to long-time peirce-l subscribers than to those who have read only his published works. In the (...) message containing the draft, Ransdell characterized the draft as follows: “What follows below is an introductory section to some work that has actually been in progress for some five years or more now, which began as an explication of.. (shrink)