On the epistolary heritage in philosophy: the phenomenon of Victoria, Lady Welby

Abstract

The aim of the present article is to draw attention to the phenomenon of correspondence as a discursive genre, a form of explication of ideas, a way of communication and mutual influence of scholars with each other. The correspondence of Victoria, Lady Welby with two famous philosophers, Charles Sanders Peirce and Charles Ogden, is an example of the phenomenon. The interest in the life and work of Lady Welby began to manifest itself in the middle of the last century; it related to her correspondence (she communicated with about 450 famous people of her time), as well as to the ideas proposed in her new science "significs". The author notes that the original papers of Victoria Welby were in the sphere of C.Peirce’s interests; this fact had a positive impact on the correspondence between them; moreover, Ch.Peirce wrote his letters in such a clear manner that they can be considered the best presentation of his ideas. The article emphasizes that Ch.Peirce saw significant similarities between his semiotic ideas and the ideas of significs. As for the correspondence between Lady Welby and C.Ogden, the author tries to point at an implicit impact of that correspondence, as well as the theory of significs, on the content of Ogden’s famous book written together with A.Richards. In her letters to Peirce, Lady Welby not only introduced Ogden to Peirce, but gave Ogden an opportunity to get acquainted with Peirce’s works and the ideas he described in his letters. The presentation of Peirce’s ideas in the book of Ogden and Richards was based on Peirce’s letters to Lady Welby. The author suggests a link between significs and early analytic philosophy. The latter could be influenced by the ideas of significs through F.Ramsey who knew some of Lady Welby’s work.