Irreducible – the essence or status of something to be irreducible or indivisible, without dissolving into something simpler.
At the heart of Charles Peirce‘s understanding of signs is the assertion that signs are irreducibly triadic.
If we compare the following two triadic relations – A moves from B to C and A gives B to C. According to Peirce, the first of them can be reduced without loss to a pair of dyadic relations – A leaves B and A arrives in C.
In contrast, the act of giving is not an accidental combination of two separate acts – A refuses B and B passes into the possession of C. In the act of giving the three terms (the giver, the gift, and the recipient) are inextricably linked together, i.e., giving is an irreducible triad.
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