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each of these categories in different fields of knowledge of his day (see

Table 6.13).

It is highly informative to note the various manifestations of Thirdness

in different disciplines. The credibility of his concept of categories seems

substantiated by his characterization of biological evolution in terms of

chance variations, hereditary transmissions, and elimination of the unfit,

which seems to be consistent with contemporary theories of evolution.

Threeness plays a fundamental role in the metaphysics of Peirce as in

the Universe in general (see Section 6.6). According to Peirce, metaphys-

ics is the study of the most general traits of reality. Reality in turn is the

object of the conclusions one cannot help drawing. As pointed out by

Pierce, “When a mathematical demonstration is clearly apprehended, we

are forced to admit the conclusion. It is evident; and we cannot think oth-

erwise” [97, pp. 47–48].

Most of Peirce’s writings on semiotics and metaphysics are based on

the trichotomy of Firstness, Secondness, and Thirdness [98], although he

did discuss the concept of Pure Zero without considering it as a separate

category [489]. In contrast, the neo-semiotics, i.e., the Peircean semiotics

that was extended in Section 6.6.4 by introducing Zeroness, is based on

four categories, i.e., Zeroness, Firstness, Secondness, and Third ness,

which may now allow neo-semiotics to encompass not only semiosis in

the physical, immanent Universe, but also the non-physical, transcenden-

tal Universe of Eastern mysticism, spiritual experiences, and the modern

physical and mathematical theories based on Zero [404, 491].

Table 6.13 The ontological categories of Peirce and their applications to special

sciences.

Special Sciences Firstness Secondness Thirdness

Phenomenology Quality Fact Law

Psychology Feeling

Sensation

Action/reaction

Perception

Thought

Belief

Physiology Cell excitation Nerve impulse

transmission

Habit

Biology Fortuitous

variations

Hereditary

transmission of traits

Elimination of

unfavorable traits

Source: Reproduced from [95].

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