Status of existence other than potential.
Objects do not just exist in different shapes and sizes; the real way of being one thing may be different from the way other things are.
While the newborn is only a potential member of one language community, the competent native speaker is a current member of the same community.
A distinction can be made (as Aristotle does, for example) between degrees and levels of relevance. Gaining the ability (say, to speak a language) distinguishes the one who does it from those who have not yet spoken, even though they have the same potential.
But the actuality of the exercise of an acquired ability (the act of speaking) means the full realization of one’s actuality as a speaker. The acute acquisition of competence represents a different level from the actual exercise of this competence.
The state I’m in as a typist when I actually started typing is different from the way I’m a swimmer when I’m not actually swimming.
Because the study of signs from classical times to the present has been a living interest in philosophical research, and since questions about the nature and status of being have always been “in” or at least close to the center of philosophy, semiotics, and metaphysics (reflections on the nature and essence of being) have intersected at many important points.
All this has led to a curious and intriguing conceptual accumulation woven into semiotics, creating frozen examples and inspiring configurations.
Such an accumulation is found in the works of Charles Peirce. According to him, there are three forms of being. When we say that something may have been or could be, we are turning our attention to things completely different from those that were, are now, or will be; and these two forms are different from what they might be.
It is possible to arrange these forms under three main headings: “each object is either possible, or current, or possible”.
My realization as a novelist is a pure manifestation of opportunity (since I have never written a novel, nor do the conditions of my life seem favorable for such an activity); my realization as a website creator, especially at this time, is a topicality; and finally, my realization as a jazz lover is a possibility.
All three forms of being correspond to the study of signs that Peirce developed throughout his life, but the third is particularly important. It is the most essential form of being represented by signs.
