The problem of the essential icon

1. Icon, Index and Symbol Charles Peirce made a well-known distinction between icons, indices and symbols. These are three kinds of signifi cation—specifi cally, three kinds of relationship between a sign and its object. I use the term ‘signifi cation’ instead of terms more familiar in analytic philosophy of language such as ‘representation’ or ‘reference’ in an attempt to loosen an apparent near-exclusive hold of the spoken and written word on many philosophers’ thinking about meaning, which is relevant to our topic. The icon/index/symbol distinction has already been much investigated by Peirce scholars,1 but a brief summary will be helpful.