C. S. Peirce on Interpretation and Collateral Experience
This article examines C. S. Peirce's conception of collateral experience and its
relation to his account of interpretation. The essay proceeds through a general
presentation of the two principal phases of Peirce's theory of signs. The key
issue of the character of experience is discussed in relation to the problem of
the ubiquity of interpretation. The main upshot of the analysis is that the
concept of 'collateral experience' is a crucial component in Peirce's mature
semeiotic; on the one hand, the collaterality of experience indicates a limit of
the semiotic domain, but on the other hand, collateral experience enters into
symbolic semiosis as something that needs to be indicated for
contextualisation to take place. The article concludes with some reflections on
Peirce's ambiguous use of the concept of 'experience'