Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect
Alfred North Whitehead's Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect examines how symbols mediate human experience through symbolic reference—the dynamic interplay between presentational immediacy (direct sensory perception, e.g., seeing a flag’s colors) and causal efficacy (tacit awareness of historical or functional context, e.g., the flag’s national significance). He argues that symbols (e.g., words, rituals) are not passive signs but lures for feeling, bridging abstract eternal objects (ideals like "justice") with concrete actual occasions via prehensive unification. Whitehead critiques misplaced concreteness—mistaking symbols (e.g., GDP) for the reality they abstract—and highlights the two-way functioning of symbolism: symbols both clarify (e.g., mathematical notation) and distort (e.g., stereotypes) by oversimplifying nexus (complex event-networks). Central is *the rhythm of symbolism, where symbols oscillate between stabilizing meaning (e.g., religious icons) and evolving through creative advance. This concise work influenced semiotics (Suzanne Langer’s symbolic theory), cognitive science (embodied cognition), and communication studies, offering a process-oriented framework for analyzing how symbols shape culture, science, and identity, while prefiguring debates on linguistic relativity and interdisciplinary symbol theory.
