Communication · Executive Insight Brief · 362
The indicator is not the condition
Peirce treats meaning as a triadic relation among sign, object, and interpretant, allowing representation, evidence, convention, and interpretive effect to be examined separately
Premise
A dashboard indicator, photograph, risk score, logo, or sentence does not communicate simply because it is present. Peirce’s semeiotic makes meaning depend on a triadic relation: a sign stands for an object in a way capable of determining an interpretant, a further understanding, response, habit, or sign. Meaning is therefore neither stored entirely in the signal nor reducible to the receiver’s reaction.
For executives, the distinction is useful whenever debate about a message hides several different disputes. One group may question whether the representation actually tracks the condition; another may accept the evidence but interpret it differently; a third may reject the institutional convention that gives the sign force. Those are not the same problem.
What the model is: Peirce’s Theory of Signs in Knowledge →
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- The essential model
- Why this matters
- Risks and limits
- Executive takeaway
- Key questions
- Selected sources
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- FamilyModel
- CategoryTheories & Explanatory Models
- DomainMeaning & Clarity
What these mean
Editorial orientation · Family
Model
In this series, Model names the editorial family primarily used to understand and explain communication: theories, frameworks, effects, traditions, principles and other conceptual resources. It is an umbrella for a route into the field, not a claim that every included object is a predictive model.
Editorial orientation · Category
Theories & Explanatory Models
Explains how or why a communication process works by relating mechanisms, conditions or variables. Its value is an account that can guide inquiry into what produces an outcome, rather than a name for the outcome alone.
- KnowledgePeirce’s Theory of Signs