The Semiotics of Spider Diagrams

Abstract

Abstract. Spider diagrams are based on Euler and Venn/Peirce diagrams, forming a system which is as expressive as monadic first order logic with equality. Rather than being primarily intended for logicians, spider diagrams were developed at the end of the 1990s in the context of visual modelling and software specification. We examine the original goals of the designers, the ways in which the notation has evolved and its connection with the philosophical origins of the logical diagrams of Euler, Venn and Peirce on which spider diagrams are based. Using Peirce's concepts and classification of signs, we analyse the ways in which different sign types are exploited in the notation. Our hope is that this analysis may be of interest beyond those readers particularly interested in spider diagrams, and act as a case study in deconstructing a simple visual logic. Along the way, we discuss the need for a deeper semiotic engagement in visual modelling.

Why Make Things Simple When You Can Make Them Complicated? An Appreciation of Lewis Carroll’s Symbolic Logic

“…As such, he opened the way to modern diagrammatic systems. Yet, it was Charles S. Peirce's subsequent work that inspired the revival of diagrammatic logic in the 1990s [13,18,72]. It remains that Carroll diagrams are regularly revisited by modern authors, and it is not rare to meet with them in modern diagrams literature [42,66,68,70].…”