Abstract
The system of Existential Graphs (henceforth, EG), consisting of three parts — Alpha, Beta and Gamma — was invented by Charles S. Peirce at the dawn of modern logic. Out of these three, Alpha and Beta systems are proven to be sound and complete deductive systems which are equivalent to sentential and first-order languages.’ However, logicians have strongly preferred symbolic systems to EG. The following two complaints against EG explain logicians’ choice: first, reading off Peirce’s graph is not easy; second, EG’s inference rules are not as intuitive as the inference rules of natural deductive systems. Many have also believed that EG lacks the kind of visual power present in a system like Euler diagrams 2 This chapter will show that if we take full advantage of the visual features of EG, we can disarm these criticisms of the system.3
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© 2002 Springer-Verlag London
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Shin, SJ. (2002). Multiple Readings of Peirce’s Alpha Graphs. In: Anderson, M., Meyer, B., Olivier, P. (eds) Diagrammatic Representation and Reasoning. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0109-3_17
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0109-3_17
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-85233-242-6
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