ETHICS THE THREE UNIVERSAL CATEGORIES

• Firstness


  The idea of the phenomenon that appears as it is, independent of any other thing. It is characterized by wholeness and the sense of quality. As soon as someone describes it, it ceases to be Firstness and becomes related with the subject describing it, denoting possibility.
• Secondness


  The idea of phenomenon in so far as it has a relation of dependence with another to which it is connected without the mediation of the third. It is characterized by dependence, the relationship of the subject with the outside world, double awareness, resistance, struggle of effort and action, denoting existence of man and of the outside world.
• Thirdness


  The idea of the phenomenon in so far as it implies a mediation between a second and a first. It becomes an intelligible aspect, characterized by thought, law and generality, denoting rationality.
• These categories are to be found in any aspect of reality and they are not separate from experience
• Peirce's pragmatic ethics can only be fully understood if we understood these three categories
• Pragmatic ethics is not a ready concept, as Peirce did not make a sustained discussion on moral actions
• We can draw some ethical principles from the concept of pragmatism as a philosophical doctrine
• We can fully understand the specificity of Peirce's pragmatics ethics if we apply it in the analysis of some concrete moral issues