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Home > Quote from "Logical Tracts. No. 1. On Existential Graphs"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Index’ (pub. 13.01.15-13:05). 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-logical-tracts-no-1-existential-graphs-14.
Term: 
Index
Quote: 

An index is a representamen whose special representative character depends upon its factual connection with its object and is independent of its being interpreted as a sign.

An index may be nearly or quite free from all iconic character; as Bunker Hill Monument, which was intended, as its designer said, merely to say “Here!” Or it may be predominantly iconic; as a photograph which resembles its object closely by virtue having been in physical connection with it. The iconic element may, as in this case, […] be combined with the indexical element in the whole representamen, or these characters may belong to separate parts of the representamen; as one of those hygroscopes where a little woman comes out of the house when the air is dry and goes in when it is moist, as a real woman would. This latter kind of index which conveys definite information is a proposition.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1903 [c.]). Logical Tracts. No. 1. On Existential Graphs. MS [R] 491.
References: 
MS [R] 491:2-3
Date of Quote: 
1903 [c.]
Editorial Annotations: 

From a possibly discarded variant [MB]

URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-logical-tracts-no-1-existential-graphs-14