“Of this nature are all natural signs and physical symptoms. I call such a sign an index, a pointing finger being the type of the class.
The index asserts nothing; it only says "There!" It takes hold of our eyes, as it were, and forcibly directs them to a particular object, and there it stops.”

— Charles Sanders Peirce

On The Algebra of Logic (1885)
Context: If the sign were not related to its object except by the mind thinking of them separately, it would not fulfil the function of a sign at all. Supposing, then, the relation of the sign to its object does not lie in a mental association, there must be a direct dual relation of the sign to its object independent of the mind using the sign. In the second of the three cases just spoken of, this dual relation is not degenerate, and the sign signifies its object solely by virtue of being really connected with it. Of this nature are all natural signs and physical symptoms. I call such a sign an index, a pointing finger being the type of the class.
The index asserts nothing; it only says "There!" It takes hold of our eyes, as it were, and forcibly directs them to a particular object, and there it stops. Demonstrative and relative pronouns are nearly pure indices, because they denote things without describing them; so are the letters on a geometrical diagram, and the subscript numbers which in algebra distinguish one value from another without saying what those values are.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Of this nature are all natural signs and physical symptoms. I call such a sign an index, a pointing finger being the ty…" by Charles Sanders Peirce?

Charles Sanders Peirce 121

American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist 1839–1914

Robert Rosen (1934–1998) American theoretical biologist

Source: Fundamentals of measurement and representation of natural systems. (1978), Ch. 2. The Basic Formalism; Quoted in: Mikulecky, Donald C. " Robert Rosen: the well‐posed question and its answer‐why are organisms different from machines? http://www.people.vcu.edu/~mikuleck/PPRISS3.html." Systems Research and Behavioral Science 17.5 (2000): 419-432.

“Cary rocked back on his heels and twirled one index finger around another in a sign meaning, wrapped around your finger., I thought, since he was wrapped around my heart.”

Sylvia Day book Bared to You

Source: Bared to You

“Being polite to a person is not a sign of respect for them. It is merely a sign of a good upbringing and a balanced nature.”

Brandon Sanderson The Wheel of Time

Source: A Memory of Light

“Signs are not empirical objects. Empirical objects become signs (or they are looked at as signs) only from the point of view of a philosophical decision.”

Umberto Eco book Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language

[O] : Introduction, 0.6
Semiotics and the Philosophy of Language (1984)

“What is Nature? An encyclopedical, systematic Index or Plan of our Spirit. Why will we content us with the mere catalogue of our Treasures? Let us contemplate them ourselves, and in all ways elaborate and use them.”

Novalis (1772–1801) German poet and writer

Novalis (1829)

“If the sign were not related to its object except by the mind thinking of them separately, it would not fulfil the function of a sign at all.”

Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914) American philosopher, logician, mathematician, and scientist

“Should not the Society of Indexers be known as Indexers, Society of, The?”

Keith Waterhouse (1929–2009) British writer

Bookends (1990), cited from Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell; Mr. And Mrs. Nobody; and, Bookends (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1992) p. 135

“I have always thought that one of the signs of natural leaders of men (and women) was their readiness to take the necessary pains to keep their followers with them.”

Judy LaMarsh (1924–1980) Canadian politician, writer, broadcaster and barrister.

Source: Memoirs Of A Bird In A Gilded Cage (1969), CHAPTER 5, The Canada Pension Plan, p. 92

“A sign [has the] explicit intention to serve as an index of subjective meanings… Language is capable of becoming the objective repository of vast accumulations of meaning and experience, which it can then preserve in time and transmit to following generations… Language also typifies experiences, allowing me to subsume them under broad categories in terms of which they have meaning not only to myself but also to my fellowmen.”

Peter L. Berger book The Social Construction of Reality

Source: The Social Construction of Reality, 1966, p.35-39

“"I and the person who looks after an orphan and provides for him, will be in Paradise like this," — putting his index and middle fingers together.”

Muhammad (570–632) Arabian religious leader and the founder of Islam

Sahih Al-Bukhari Volume 8 Book 73 Number 34
Sunni Hadith

“Of this nature are all natural signs and physical symptoms. I call such a sign an index, a pointing finger being the type of the class.
The index asserts nothing; it only says "There!" It takes hold of our eyes, as it were, and forcibly directs them to a particular object, and there it stops.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Charles Sanders Peirce 121

Related quotes

Related topics

“Of this nature are all natural signs and physical symptoms. I call such a sign an index, a pointing finger being the type of the class.The index asserts nothing; it only says "There!" It takes hold of our eyes, as it were, and forcibly directs them to a particular object, and there it stops.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Charles Sanders Peirce 121

Related quotes

Related topics

“Of this nature are all natural signs and physical symptoms. I call such a sign an index, a pointing finger being the type of the class.
The index asserts nothing; it only says "There!" It takes hold of our eyes, as it were, and forcibly directs them to a particular object, and there it stops.”