Peirce was an American philosopher best known for his contributions to Logic and Semiotic, the study of signs and symbols . In his Theory of signs, Peirce argued that signs are not merely representational but also have a function or purpose.
He distinguished three types of signs:
- Icons: representing something through resemblance or similarity.
- Indices: representing something through a causal or existential relation.
- Symbols: representing something through convention or social agreement.
Peirce also developed a logical system called existential graphs, designed to visually represent logical relations. His work has had a profound influence on the development of semiotics and continues to be widely studied in Philosophy and related fields.
Reflections
Eco is citing several times Peirce on his books on Semiotic:
Eco, U. (2014). Semiotica e filosofia del linguaggio. Einaudi. Eco, U. (2016). Kant e l’ornitorinco. Bompiani.