title: The hardness of the iconic must: Can Peirce’s existential graphs assist modal epistemology?

authors: Legg, Catherine

subjects: modal epistemology

abstract: The current of development in 20th century logic bypassed Peirce’s existential graphs, but recently much good work has been done by formal logicians excavating the graphs from Peirce’s manuscripts, regularizing them and demonstrating the soundness and completeness of the alpha and beta systems (e.g. Roberts 1973, Hammer 1998, Shin 2002). However, given that Peirce himself considered the graphs to be his ‘chef d’oeuvre’ in logic, and explored the distinction between icons, indices and symbols in detail within the context of a much larger theory of signs, much about the graphs arguably remains to be thought through from the perspective of philosophical logic. For instance, are the graphs always merely of heuristic value or can they convey an ‘essential icon’ (analogous to the now standardly accepted ‘essential indexical’)? This paper claims they can and do, and suggests important consequences follow from this for the epistemology of modality. It is boldly suggested that structural articulation, which is characteristic of icons alone, is the source of all necessity. In other words, recognizing a statement as necessarily true consists only in an unavoidable recognition that a structure has the particular structure that it in fact has. (What else could it consist in?)

text: The hardness of the iconic must: Can Peirce’s existential graphs assist modal epistemology? The current of development in 20th century logic bypassed Peirce’s existential graphs, but recently much good work has been done by formal logicians excavating the graphs from Peirce’s manuscripts, regularizing them and demonstrating the soundness and completeness of the alpha and beta systems (e.g. Roberts 1973, Hammer 1998, Shin 2002). However, given that Peirce himself considered the graphs to be his ‘chef d’oeuvre’ in logic, and explored the distinction between icons, indices and symbols in detail within the context of a much larger theory of signs, much about the graphs arguably remains to be thought through from the perspective of philosophical logic. For instance, are the graphs always merely of heuristic value or can they convey an ‘essential icon’ (analogous to the now standardly accepted ‘essential indexical’)? This paper claims they can and do, and suggests important consequences follow from this for the epistemology of modality. It is boldly suggested that structural articulation, which is characteristic of icons alone, is the source of all necessity. In other words, recognizing a statement as necessarily true consists only in an unavoidable recognition that a structure has the particular structure that it in fact has. (What else could it consist in?)

year: 2009-12

title: New Zealand: Independent nation or acquiescent ally?

authors: Murray, C. J.

abstract: New Zealand is a small nation of predominantly Anglo-Saxon culture situated in a corner of the earth far distant from the land of its cultural forbears. Despite its distance from the centres of power during its relatively short life, New Zealand has been associated with the two greatest powers in the world in the past century and a half - first Britain, and during the latter half of the 20th century with the United States of America. With this strong association has gone the reflected glory of power and prestige that a great nation enjoys. New Zealanders have in the past felt that Britain’s glory was their own, and justifiably so, as they had contributed both economically and with military manpower to the maintenance of that power. 
In recent years, New Zealand has had to face the hard fact that Britain is no longer the power that she was. She can now only be classed as a middle-range power along with several others. And although New Zealand continues to be associated with one of the world’s two greatest powers at this time, the United States, the indications are that she also faces a diminishing relative power combined with a reluctance or inability to effectively use the power that she enjoys to maintain her position. New Zealand's emotional and cultural ties with America have never been as strong as with Britain - in fact there has probably always been a residue of anti-American feeling which arises largely out of the Americans’ boastfulness of their wealth, power and right to rule.

text: New Zealand: Independent nation or acquiescent ally? New Zealand is a small nation of predominantly Anglo-Saxon culture situated in a corner of the earth far distant from the land of its cultural forbears. Despite its distance from the centres of power during its relatively short life, New Zealand has been associated with the two greatest powers in the world in the past century and a half - first Britain, and during the latter half of the 20th century with the United States of America. With this strong association has gone the reflected glory of power and prestige that a great nation enjoys. New Zealanders have in the past felt that Britain’s glory was their own, and justifiably so, as they had contributed both economically and with military manpower to the maintenance of that power. 
In recent years, New Zealand has had to face the hard fact that Britain is no longer the power that she was. She can now only be classed as a middle-range power along with several others. And although New Zealand continues to be associated with one of the world’s two greatest powers at this time, the United States, the indications are that she also faces a diminishing relative power combined with a reluctance or inability to effectively use the power that she enjoys to maintain her position. New Zealand's emotional and cultural ties with America have never been as strong as with Britain - in fact there has probably always been a residue of anti-American feeling which arises largely out of the Americans’ boastfulness of their wealth, power and right to rule.

year: 1973

title: A literary and linguistic critique of a Māori lullaby

authors: August, Tipene

subjects: waiata Māori

abstract: Māori song poems surviving from pre-colonial times can provide a valuable source of information about the artistic and cultural heritage of Māoridom. However, they present a number of challenges for the contemporary analyst. On the basis of a stylistic analysis of a Māori lullaby, a number of hypotheses about Māori song poems in general, and the lullaby in particular, are put forward and it is suggested that these hypotheses could be tested in relation to a corpus of song poems. It is hoped that the approach to stylistic analysis adopted here will be of use to scholars of Māori song poems and, perhaps, also to others who are interested in indigenous art forms more generally.

text: A literary and linguistic critique of a Māori lullaby Māori song poems surviving from pre-colonial times can provide a valuable source of information about the artistic and cultural heritage of Māoridom. However, they present a number of challenges for the contemporary analyst. On the basis of a stylistic analysis of a Māori lullaby, a number of hypotheses about Māori song poems in general, and the lullaby in particular, are put forward and it is suggested that these hypotheses could be tested in relation to a corpus of song poems. It is hoped that the approach to stylistic analysis adopted here will be of use to scholars of Māori song poems and, perhaps, also to others who are interested in indigenous art forms more generally.

year: 2001-02