Few people today, says Susanne Langer, are born to an environment which gives them spiritual support. Even as we are conquering nature, there is "little we see in nature that is ours." We have lost our life-symbols, and our actions no longer have ritual value; this is the most disastrous hindrance to the free functioning of the human mind.
For, as Mrs. Langer observes, ". . . the human brain is constantly carrying on a process of symbolic transfor- mation" of experience, not as a poor substitute for action, but as a basic human need. This concept of symbolic transformation strikes a "new key in philosophy." It is a new generative idea, variously reflected even in such diverse fields as psychoanalysis and symbolic logic. With- in it lies the germ of a complete reorientation to life, to art, to action. By posing a whole new world of questions in this key, Mrs. Langer presents a new world-view in which the limits of language do not appear as the last limits of rational, meaningful experience, but things in- accessible to discursive language have their own forms of conception. Her examination of the logic of signs and symbols, and her account of what constitutes meaning, what characterizes symbols, forms the basis for her fur- ther elaboration of the significance of language, ritual, myth and music, and the integration of all these elements into human mentality.
Irwin Edman says: "I suspect Mrs. Langer has estab- lished a key in terms of which a good deal of philosophy these next years may be composed."
About This Book
Few people today, says Susanne Langer, are born to an environment which gives them spiritual support. Even as we are conquering nature, there is "little we see in nature that is ours." We have lost our life-symbols, and our actions no longer have ritual value; this is the most disastrous hindrance to the free functioning of the human mind.
For, as Mrs. Langer observes, ". . . the human brain is constantly carrying on a process of symbolic transfor- mation" of experience, not as a poor substitute for action, but as a basic human need. This concept of symbolic transformation strikes a "new key in philosophy." It is a new generative idea, variously reflected even in such diverse fields as psychoanalysis and symbolic logic. With- in it lies the germ of a complete reorientation to life, to art, to action. By posing a whole new world of questions in this key, Mrs. Langer presents a new world-view in which the limits of language do not appear as the last limits of rational, meaningful experience, but things in- accessible to discursive language have their own forms of conception. Her examination of the logic of signs and symbols, and her account of what constitutes meaning, what characterizes symbols, forms the basis for her fur- ther elaboration of the significance of language, ritual, myth and music, and the integration of all these elements into human mentality.
Irwin Edman says: "I suspect Mrs. Langer has estab- lished a key in terms of which a good deal of philosophy these next years may be composed."