SIGNS

Basic semiotic elements

1. Sign

Always immediate to itself.

That is, in a tautologous sense, present in or at itself,

even if it is not immediate to a mind

or immediately accomplished without processing or is a general apprehended

only in its instances.

2. Object

i. Immediate object, the object as represented in the sign.

ii. Dynamic object, the object as it really is,

on which the idea which is the immediate object is

"founded, Also called the dynamoid object, the dynamical object.

3. Interpretant

i. Immediate interpretant,

the quality of the impression which a sign is fit to produce,

not any actual reaction,

and which the sign carries with it

even before there is an interpreter or quasi-interpreter.

It is what is ordinarily called the sign's meaning.

ii. Dynamic interpretant,

the actual effect (apart from the feeling)

of the sign on a mind or quasi-mind,

for instance the agitation of the feeling.

iii. Final interpretant,

the effect which the sign would have on any mind or quasi-mind

if circumstances allowed that effect to be fully achieved.

It is the sign's end or purpose.

The final interpretant of one's inqury

about the weather may consist in the effect which the true response would have

on one's plans for the day which were the inquiry's purpose.

The final interpretant of a line of investigation as such is truth

and would be reached sooner or later

but still inevitably by investigation adequately prolonged,

though the truth remains independent of that which

you or I

or any finite community of investigators believe.

"Every new concept first comes to the mind in a judgment."

Charles sanders Peirce