In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffler explores the various ways in which the mind functions symbolically. This involves considering not only the worlds of the sciences and the arts, but also such activities as religious ritual and child's play. The book offers an integrated treatment of ambiguity and metaphor, analyses of play and ritual, and an extended discussion of the relations between scientific symbol systems and reality. What emerges is a picture of the basic symbol-forming character of the mind.
Review
"Israel Scheffler's Symbolic Worlds is a masterful demonstration that there is new territory to explore and settle by looking at the world through the filter of language. Philosophy in Review
"Scheffler's book reminds one of those good old days when symbolic worlds could still be closed by "strict methodological canons." Jens Brockmeier, Journal of Educational Thought
Book Description
In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffler explores the various ways in which the mind functions symbolically. This involves considering not only the worlds of the sciences and the arts, but also such activities as religious ritual and child's play. The book offers an integrated treatment of ambiguity and metaphor, analyses of play and ritual, and an extended discussion of the relations between scientific symbol systems and reality. What emerges is a picture of the basic symbol-forming character of the mind.
Description:
In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffler explores the various ways in which the mind functions symbolically. This involves considering not only the worlds of the sciences and the arts, but also such activities as religious ritual and child's play. The book offers an integrated treatment of ambiguity and metaphor, analyses of play and ritual, and an extended discussion of the relations between scientific symbol systems and reality. What emerges is a picture of the basic symbol-forming character of the mind.
Review
"Israel Scheffler's Symbolic Worlds is a masterful demonstration that there is new territory to explore and settle by looking at the world through the filter of language. Philosophy in Review
"Scheffler's book reminds one of those good old days when symbolic worlds could still be closed by "strict methodological canons." Jens Brockmeier, Journal of Educational Thought
Book Description
In this important and broad-ranging book, Israel Scheffler explores the various ways in which the mind functions symbolically. This involves considering not only the worlds of the sciences and the arts, but also such activities as religious ritual and child's play. The book offers an integrated treatment of ambiguity and metaphor, analyses of play and ritual, and an extended discussion of the relations between scientific symbol systems and reality. What emerges is a picture of the basic symbol-forming character of the mind.