The Commens Dictionary

Quote from ‘On the Classification of the Sciences’

A Representamen can be considered from three formal points of view, namely, first, as the substance of the representation, or the Vehicle of the Meaning, which is common to the three representamens of the triad, second, as the quasi-agent in the representation, conformity to which makes its Truth, that is, as the Natural Object, and third, as the quasi-patient in the representation, or that which modification in the representation makes its Intelligence, and this may be called the Interpretant. Thus, in looking at a map, the map itself is the Vehicle, the country represented is the Natural Object, and the idea excited in the mind is the Interpretant.