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An Instance vs. The Instance

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Abstract

This article argues how one problem of computing lies in realizing a significant instance given a class or type. Analysis of a case study on digital narrative suggests two general processes for instantiating significant instances: interaction and optimization. The article then explains how the problem of universals needs to be deconstructed when trying to understand what type of entities significant instances are and what the process for obtaining them is.

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Notes

  1. Although he raises three types of inference, Peirce did not show how these three are categorized under his universal categories. Two possible categorizations have been proposed so far (Yonemori 1981). The first regards abduction as firstness, since it requires instinctive human ideas, which are categorized as firstness. In this case, deduction and induction are considered secondness and thirdness, respectively. The second categorization regards deduction, induction, and abduction as firstness, secondness, and thirdness, respectively, situating abduction as the highest-level inference. This lack of mention of the universal categories in regards to inference might suggest that Peirce was not so certain about the universal category for inference. Moreover, whether abduction should be included as one of the three most basic types of inference requires examination by considering the possibility of decomposing abductive inference into deduction and induction. I consider instantiation to be another possible candidate as an indispensable means for inference, but Peirce would not agree, since he strictly denied haecceity.

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  1. University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii

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  1. Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii
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Correspondence to Kumiko Tanaka-Ishii.

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Tanaka-Ishii, K. An Instance vs. The Instance. Minds & Machines 19, 117–128 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11023-008-9128-0

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