Bibliography

Logic of the Sciences

Representations whose subject and object depend immediately upon the ground and not upon any character of either. But the ground in any case must be a character of the representation which connects it with subject and object. Hence such representations are those which agree immediately with both subject and object in some characters. It is this sort of representation which an individual is of itself; and also which a sensation is. For a sensation agrees immediately with the thing in affecting the sense and with the mind in being affected by the thing. It is this sort of representation also which a picture is. Accordingly I call this species of representation copy.

A copy is a representation which really and of its self refers to its object by resembling it.

… I must call your attention to the differences there are in the manner in which different representations stand for their objects. In the first place there are likenesses or copies - such as statues, pictures, emblems, hieroglyphics, and the like. Such representations stand for their objects only so far as they have an actual resemblance to them - that is agree with them in some characters. The peculiarity of such representations is that they do not determine their objects - they stand for anything more or less; for they stand for whatever they resemble and they resemble everything more or less.

… if the ground determines the subject in itself, there will be no relation of the representation to its object in itself but only in the subject. No quality of the object will be implied by the representation, therefore, since that would be a ground of agreement in the object. The representation will therefore be unsusceptible of truth. An imperfect example of such a representation is a proper name the ground of which is a convention between the persons who use it. Such a representation may be called an index.

Representation implies first an object represented; 2nd a mind or rather abstracting from the personal element, a representation (itself or other) to which it addresses itself. I call this the subject. 3rd a Ground or Reason which determines it to represent that object to that subject. We have nothing else implied in the representation as representation.

Representations whose subject depends upon its object. That is which are intelligible to those who can comprehend a certain character of the object - if there are several objects, a common character. It is this sort of representation which a conception is; and which a word is, after it has once been acquired as a sign. I call this species of representation Symbol.

A type/symbol is a representation whose correspondence with its object is of the same immaterial kind as a sign but is founded nevertheless in its very nature and is not merely supposed and fictitious.