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Home > Quote from "New Elements (Kaina stoiceia)"

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
‘Pure Icon’ (pub. 12.11.15-17:51). 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-new-elements-kaina-stoiceia-33.
Term: 
Pure Icon
Quote: 

…a geometrical figure drawn on paper may be an icon of a triangle or other geometrical form. If one meets a man whose language one does not know and resorts to imitative sounds and gestures, these approach the charac­ter of an icon. The reason they are not pure icons is that the purpose of them is emphasized. A pure icon is independent of any purpose. It serves as a sign solely and simply by exhibiting the quality it serves to signify. The relation to its object is a degenerate relation. It asserts nothing. If it conveys informa­tion, it is only in the sense in which the object that it is used to represent may be said to convey information. An icon can only be a fragment of a completer sign.

Source: 
Peirce, C. S. (1904 [c.]). New Elements (Kaina stoiceia). MS [R] 517.
References: 
EP 2:306
Date of Quote: 
1904 [c.]
URL: 

http://www.commens.org/dictionary/entry/quote-new-elements-kaina-stoiceia-33