1 - Introduction and background
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 March 2010
Summary
Symbolism is a primary characteristic of mind, displayed in every variety of thought and department of culture. This book explores aspects of symbolic function in language, science, and art as well as ritual, play, and the forming of worldviews. It restates fundamental themes in my earlier work, follows up prior lines of inquiry in the development of such themes, and deals with several new problems arising in the course of further inquiries.
A study of pragmatism long ago convinced me of the representative character of thought – its functioning as mediated throughout by symbols. My book Four Pragmatists presented this view of thought as vigorously argued by C. S. Peirce, William James, G. H. Mead, and John Dewey, and my Of Human Potential restated such a view as important for education.
Foremost among the capacities presupposed by human action, I wrote
is that of symbolic representation, in virtue of which intentions may be expressed, anticipations formulated, purposes projected and past outcomes recalled… Human beings are symbolic animals, hence both creators and creatures of culture… the symbolic systems constructed by human beings are not simply changes rung upon some universal matrix, itself sprung from the givens of physics. […]
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- Symbolic WorldsArt, Science, Language, Ritual, pp. 3 - 10Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1996