Peirce on icons and iconicity

Abstract The concept of icon has its foundation in the semiotics of C.S. Peirce. According to Peirce, a sign represents a material or mental object and creates a so-called interpretant in an interpreter’s mind. In contrast to a symbol, which needs to be learned, and an index, which is related to its object spatially or causally, an icon has cognitive features in common with its object, which make it seem similar to it. The chapter examines how the three classes of sign overlap and combine, and it presents Peirce’s further subdivision of iconic signs into images, diagrams, and metaphors. Images share simple qualities with their object, diagrams are abstract or structural representations of their object, and metaphors are based on a tertium comparationis.