The Concept of the Correlate in Peirce’s “New List of Categories”

Abstract:The aim of this paper is to clarify what Peirce meant by “correlate” in his early paper “On a New List of Categories.” I take up the interpretation of Peirce’s concept of the correlate put forward by André De Tienne in his book L’analytique de la représentation chez Peirce, and I offer my own interpretation by pointing out the problems with De Tienne’s view. De Tienne detects a certain confusion in Peirce’s notion of the correlate in the “New List.” The problem is that Peirce seems to be using the term “correlate” in two incompatible senses, namely: (1) that which occasions the introduction of reference to a ground, and (2) the second term of a dyadic or triadic relation. I will argue, however, that these two senses of the term “correlate” are incompatible only on a narrow, psychological reading of Peirce’s notion of comparison and that there is no incompatibility if we understand comparison in a broader way.