<


 

Help
Index

 Maarten Maartensz:    Philosophical Dictionary | Filosofisch Woordenboek                      

 S - Sign

 

Sign : Something that is correlated to something else and thus permits the inference or expectation that the other thing is or will be present if the sign is present.

Thus, clouds are a sign that it may rain, smoke is a sign of fire and so on. Note that for something X to be a sign of something Y it is required that X and Y are correlated as a matter of fact, and not merely by some arbitrary human convention as is the case with symbols.

 

See also: Symbol

Literature:

Deacon, Diamond, Ogden & Richards, Peirce,

 Original: Oct 14, 2004                                                Last edited: 12 December 2011.   Top