76 INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE 



terms of the here and now ; events which are very large must 

 be reduced, and events which are very small must be en- 

 larged; events which endure must be shortened as to life, 

 and events which are very brief must be prolonged; events 

 which are highly complex must be schematized, and events 

 which are highly simple must be associated with possibly 

 irrelevant detail. Hence icons lose their essential pictorial 

 value when used in such realms, since they subtract from, 

 or add to, their referents in important ways. The result is 

 that unless one is very cautious in the use of these symbols he 

 is almost certain to read out of, or read into, the referents 

 certain properties whose absence or presence is suggested by 

 the character of the symbol. This becomes an important 

 source of error in science. 



Before dismissing the subject of symbols, attention must 

 be called to a peculiar type of symbol which is apparently 

 required for every symbolic scheme. This is usually called a 

 "proper name" or an "index," and it is needed to relate an 

 event given in direct awareness with a symbol which is 

 presumed to be applicable to it. Both characterizing symbols 

 and icons refer to their referents through properties, and one 

 locates these referents by identifying the events possessing 

 the specified properties. But the referents which are thus 

 specified may not exist. An alternative means of identifica- 

 tion is through gestures, or through the employment of 

 certain words such as "this," "that," "here," 'now," and 

 certain other "pure" proper names. Events so located must 

 exist, since proper names in the absence of their referents are 

 meaningless and become mere noises. Hence a symbolic 

 scheme which has an actual application, as over against one 

 which has only an applicability, will always contain some- 

 thing which functions as a proper name. A map, for exam- 

 ple, must always contain not merely a label, such as "map 

 of Chicago," or "map of France," but it must contain a more 

 specific reference such as " I am now here " indicated by point- 

 ing to a spot on the map. Only through some such means can 

 the specific application of the symbolic scheme be determined. 



