representamen

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Noun 1.3.1 Related terms 1.3.2 Quotations 1.4 References

[edit] English

[edit] Etymology

From New Latin repraesentamen^[1], from Latin repraesentare, "to bring back", "to display", "to represent", "to pay immediately", "to perform immediately".

[edit] Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌrɛp.rə.zɛn.ˈteɪ.mən/
• (plural representamina) IPA: /ˌrɛp.rə.zɛn.ˈta.mɪ.nə/

The pronunciations follow the pattern of "stamen", "stamina", "foramen", "foramina".

[edit] Noun

representamen (plural representamina or representamens)

1. A representation, a thing serving to represent something (as to an interpreting mind). It is a representation in the sense of something which represents, as opposed to its operation or relation of representing, and also as opposed to a process or activity of representing, which produces it. (The produced representamen can itself seem or be a process or activity, for example a song or a theatrical performance, or a rock's tumbling in an informative way, or a logical argument). Cf. sign.

[edit] Related terms

[edit] Quotations

• "representamen (rep″rẹ̄ -zen-tā′ men), n. [< NL. *repræsentamen, < L. repræsentare, represent: see represent.] In metaph., representation; an object serving to represent something to the mind. Sir W. Hamilton." — the Century Dictionary, 1911.
• "I confine the word representation to the operation of a sign or its relation to the object for the interpreter of the representation. The concrete subject that represents I call a sign or a representamen." — C. S. Peirce, Lowell Lectures 1903, Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, v. 1, paragraph 540. Eprint.
• "Possibly there may be Representamens that are not Signs." — C. S. Peirce, "A Syllabus of Certain Topics of Logic", 1903, the Essential Peirce v. 2, pp. 272-3. Eprint.
• "It is the science of what is quasi-necessarily true of the representamina of any scientific intelligence in order that they may hold good of any object, that is, may be true." — C. S. Peirce, Collected Papers v. 2, paragraph 229. Eprint.
• Four instances of "representamina" used by John Deely, Four Ages of Understanding (2001, U of Toronto Press), p. 726, Google Books limited preview Eprint

[edit] References

• representamen in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911

• Notes:

1. ^ The Century Dictionary puts the asterisk of conjecture before the New Latin form repraesentamen, but the word appears:
   • in the 1703 Latin work Phosphorus philosophicus auctior, seu logica contracta Claubergiana by Johannes Flender, 1703, p. 12 (via Google Books): "...sive, cogitatio, quæ est imago et repræsentamen ejus rei, quam concipimus, quô modô forma seu essentia ideae consistit in representatione rei; sive in eo, quòd sit rei repræsentamen, ..." (emphases in original), which is quoted with some rephrasing in Philosophy of Sir William Hamilton, Bart., by Sir William Hamilton, arranged and edited by Orlando Williams Wight, 1850, p. 264 (via Google Books), as follows: " '...prout est cogitatio intellectus hanc vel illam rem representans,—quo modo forma seu essentia ideae consistit in representatione rei, sive in eo quod sit representamen vel imago ejus rei quam concipimus.' (Phosph. Philos. § 5.)" (emphases in original).
   • in a 1699 Latin letter from Johann Bernoulli to Gottfried Leibniz, published in Leibniz's Mathematische Schriften, v. 3, letter XCV, p. 580 (via Google Books Halle edition of 1850): "Si per similitudinem intelligas ideam ipsam seu repraesentamen, quo objectum menti sistitur tanquam in pictura, eam sane non exsibilant Cartesiani."
   • in Hermanni Venema, Institutiones historiae ecclesiae..., Tomus IV, 1780, p. 436 (via Google Books): "...sed sacrificii cruci repraesentamen et commemorationem...".