In semiosis (the process of meaning), there is no sign without an interpretant, no interpretant without an object, no object without a sign. But in this ‘cooperation of three subjects,’ the reality of the one functioning as object is independent of its correlation with the other two cooperating subjects, the sign and its interpretant. The object and the interpretant are ‘the two correlates of the sign; the one being antecedent, the other consequent of the sign’ (Peirce, EP2:410) – but the reality of the correlation (experienced as the activity of meaning) does not constitute the reality of the object. ‘Reality is simply the character of being independent of what is thought concerning the real object’ (EP2:271).