Thinking in threes is revolutionary
First, let us say that thinking in itself is a conscious action. In Triadic Philosophy it is conscious action that evokes a sign and moves to an index of values and then to a conclusion which unveils an expression or an action or both.
Charkes Sanders Pierce notes:
“… thinking is a species of conduct which is largely subject to self-control …. logical self-control is a perfect mirror of ethical self-control...” ( The Monist CP 1)
Thinking in threes in Triadic Philosophy is the literal process of moving from Reality to Ethics to Aesthetics.
When I speak of thinking in threes I mean this particular mode of thinking.
But there is a simpler and to me more fundamental way of understanding thinking in threes.
It is escaping the binary.
It is rejecting thinking in twos about serious matters which are more than two-sided.
Most fights in movies are binary.
There is a right and a wrong.
Zap!
Generally right wins. Generally wrong dies.
Binary is everything two sided.
Thinking in threes in this broader, more general sense is a counsel to not stop with either-or, this or that or “my way or the highway”. It invites you to move always to a third. And to keep that process alive until you come to a conclusion that works ethically.
Triadic Thinking in the narrow sense is the use of the philosophy as a means of living. It is a fantastic and simple mode of existence. It is worth the price of admission.
But the broader meaning — thinking in threes — is perhaps more revolutionary.
We have lived in a binary culture in a triadic cosmos.
It has literally bent things out of shape. As we move to a triadic culture in a triadic cosmos we breathe easier, operate more peacefully and gradually overcome the noxious effects of our binary heritage.
Hear Pierce again:
“… the possibility of science depends upon the fact that human thought necessarily partakes of whatever character is diffused through the whole universe, and that its natural modes have some tendency to be the modes of action of the universe.” (Peirce: CP 1.352)
Peirce did not propose Triadic Philosophy and none of the thinking in this book or elsewhere in my writings is an effort to integrate my thought with that of Pierce at the point of utilizing his highly evolved mathematics and science and the resulting philosophy which is heavy on categories and on the permutations of firstness, secondness and thirdness.
Merely to arrive at an understanding of the complex verbiage which Peirce brings to his elaboration of systems and categories is an exercise that dumbfounds scholars whose immersion in Peirce makes me a novice in the wading pool.
That Peirce was a triadic thinker goes without saying.
But what you are reading is a derivative effort to fashion a doable, popular mode of existing that will revolutionize life on the planet.
If there is any correspondence with Peirce it may be because his philosophy does something similar.
I derived thinking in threes from my reading of Peirce and a sense of the triad as a practical means of thinking through to action and expression.
I do not think this simple and revolutionary move is widely known or appreciated. Hang on. This is the work of lifetimes. Mine and that of others who see the light.
