Pure Icon   

Pure Icon

Commens
Digital Companion to C. S. Peirce
Pure Icon
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1904 [c.] | New Elements (Kaina stoiceia) | EP 2:306

…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.