Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explains the important class of the indexical sign and its innovative role in Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotics. It shows how the logic of the index relates to the way signs appear as evidence, and hence Peirce’s characterisation of what he called abductive inference. The book addresses the issues of evidence, and its relationship with the indexical sign. It analyses the relationship between Peirce’s concepts of interpretation and those advanced by phenomenological philosophers such as Martin Heidegger and Hans-Georg Gadamer. The book focuses on Peirce’s anticipation of what is called posthumanism and an orientation to environment that speculates on what the world would be like in the absence of human beings. It summarises the case for Peirce as a radical contributor to architectural thinking.