서구의 기호학(semiotics)과 『주역』은 그 출발점부터 그 지향점을 달리하는 체계이다. 그러나 이러한 태생적 이질성에도 불구하고 양자 사이에는 기호라는 중요한 접점이 존재한다. 필자는 이 소고(小考)를 통하여 서구 기호학의 한 축을 형성하는 인물인 찰스 샌더스 퍼스(Charles Sanders Peirce)의 기호학사상과 『주역』에 관한 비교철학적 고찰을 시도하고자 한다. 논문의 본론 부분은 크게 네 가지 주제로 구성되어 있다. 즉, 제2장인 「범기호주의와 시네키즘」에서는 퍼스 기호학의 특성을 범기호주의와 시네키즘(synechism)으로 보고, 그 의미를 해명할 것이다. 제3장인 「퍼스의 세미오시스와 『주역』에서는 기호를 표상체(representamen), 대상체(object), 해석체(interpretant)라는 3항관계를 통해 분석하는 퍼스의 관점을 살펴보고, 이 관점을 『주역』에 적용하여 해석해 보기로 한다. 제4장인 「퍼스의 기호의 삼분법과 『주역』의 괘상(卦象)의 관계」에서는 기호를 지표(指標; index), 유상(類像; icon), 상징(symbol)의 세 종류로 구분하는 퍼스의 관점을 『주역』에 적용하여 『주역』의 괘상(卦象)이 어떤 특성을 갖는지를 분석하고자 한다. 마지막으로 제5장인 「가추법과 『주역』의 논리」에서는 기호를 사용할 때 적용하는 사유의 방법과 관련하여 가추법(abduction)의 논리적 특성을 설명하고, 아울러 가추법적 방법이 『주역』의 사유방법과 갖는 공통성을 해명할 것이다.
This paper aims at the semiotic interpretation on the signs of the Zhouyi. Semiotics, although it was born from western background, could give us the effective tool for understanding the semiotic character of the Zhouyi, because the use of the signs had been the universally diffused phenomena in the ancient times. In this paper, the semiotic aspect of Zhouyi is explained mainly from the perspective of C. S. Peirce who represents the American semiotic tradition. His semiotic viewpoint could give us an useful frame of reference for clarifying the Zhouyi's semiotic aspect. Peirce's view implies two important philosophical doctrines, namely, the pansemiotism and synechism. Pansemiotism is the view that all environmental phenomena are semiotic in their essence. On the other hand, Peirce explained that the synechism is the tendency to regard everything as continuous. In Peirce's synechism that does not distinguish the physical phenomena from the spiritual phenomena, we can find the similar element analogous with the worldview included in the Zhouyi. Peirce analyzed the meaning of semiosis through the triadic relation among the representamen, the object, and the interpretant. Three elements of the Zhouyi's semiosis consists of the image of the gua, the phrase of the gua, and the meaning of the gua. In addition, Peirce classified the kind of the signs into three types, namely, the index, the icon and the symbol. Based on Peirce's definition, the sign of the Zhouyi can be regarded as having the character of both icon and symbol. But, the index does not belong to the character of the Zhouyi sign. Finally, Peirce admitted the abduction, or the abductive inference as the a method of logical reasoning in addition to the induction and deduction. Abductive reasoning is the process of adopting an explanatory hypothesis, when an inquirer considers of a set of seemingly unrelated facts, armed with an intuition that they are somehow connected. As the historian, Carlo Ginzburg suggested, the abductive reasoning is a way of thinking that is typical to the divinatory paradigm. As the divinatory paradigm is based on the personal knowledge, and can be obtained by conjecture, Ginzburg also called it as the evidential, or conjectual way of thinking. Peirce thought that the abduction played a crucial role in forming the logic of the scientific discovery. He interpreted the abduction essentially as a creative process of generating a new hypothesis. Unfortunately, the importance of the abduction has been largely overruled by the analytic tradition in contemporary Anglo-American philosophy. However, to make an antithesis between science and divination as the rationalism and irrationalism does not help at all for the discovery of truth.