Published on Commens (http://www.commens.org)

Home > Quote from "Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism: Lecture III"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Icon’ (pub. 28.04.13-19:53). Quote in M. Bergman & S. Paavola (Eds.), The Commens Dictionary: Peirce's Terms in His Own Words. New Edition. Retrieved from http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-harvard-lectures-pragmatism-lecture-iii-5.
Term: 
Icon
Quote: 

An icon is a representamen which fulfills the function of a representamen by virtue of a character which it possesses in itself, and would possess just the same though its object did not exist. Thus, the statue of a centaur is not, it is true, a representamen if there be no such thing as a centaur. Still, if it represents a centaur, it is by virtue of its shape; and this shape it will have, just as much, whether there be a centaur or not.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1903). Harvard Lectures on Pragmatism: Lecture III. MS [R] 308.
References: 
CP 5.73
Date of Quote: 
1903
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-harvard-lectures-pragmatism-lecture-iii-5