Remaking America by George Shollenberger, Idea III (Philosophy of Symbols)

As I said in Idea II yesterday, if ‘the people’ want to remake America, they must develop our symbolic languages by our families and our schools, colleges, and universities. To begin this development, I recommend the 1957 book ‘Philosophy in a New Key’ by Susanne Langer. In Chapter 1, she identifies this new key of philosophy with the great discovery of symbols in the 1920s by many independent linguists.

The development of ‘symbols’ raises man above the ‘signals’ of all other animals and places man into the kingdom of God. Lower animals do not develop symbols. But we often act like lower animals. For instance, when we sit at the table to eat, we guide the food on the table into our mouth with a fork. All ‘signals’ from this process must be collected by the senses and must be named, given meaning, measured, functionally related and fed back into this process to make eating a meal pleasurable.

However, man asks questions, such as, Should I go to college? ; Should I take that pill? ; What is my purpose? ; What id that? ; Should I marry? ; Does God exist? : Does life exist after death? : etc. Man seeks answers to such questions continuously. When such questions are asked, ‘symbols’ must be collected by the senses and must be named, given meanings, measured, functional related, and fed back.

What is the difference between collecting signals and collecting symbols? The difference is feedback. The feedback from signals save the bodies of all animals whereas the feedback from symbols save the mind of man. Feedback is necessary for all bodies but is necessary only for the minds of Men.

Accordingly, man’s development and use of symbols require all nations to reject the theory of eschatology, Darwin’s evolutionary theory, atheism, today’s life sciences, today’s cosmology, and today’s unfettered economy.