Susanne Langer in Focus The Symbolic Mind [Paperback]

Susanne Langer (18951985) was one of American philosophy's most distinctive thinkers. Her philosophy was a deep exploration of human life as a continuous process of meaning-making through symbolic forms. Here, Robert E. Innis brings readers closer to Langer's precise and nuanced account of the symbolic mind. Innis shows how Langer's thought spans the sciences, aesthetics, psychology, religion, education, and music, and where it touches on concerns that were brought forward by American pragmatists such as John Dewey and William James. Innis reveals Langer's intense focus on making meaning clear as he covers her entire philosophical career. Highlighting what is of permanent value to American philosophy in Langer's work, he determines exactly what her positions were and why she proposed them. Readers will find a keen appreciation for and critical appraisal of Langer's unique philosophical vision.

Robert Innis has performed an immensely valuable service for scholars in the fields of American philosophy, aesthetics, and semiotics. Not only does his comprehensive view of Susanne K. Langers opus show us its development, but this is the only book in English devoted solely to Langer.

Preface and Acknowledgments
Biographical Note
Abbreviations and Langer Bibliography
Introduction: Links, Themes, and Intersections
1. The Roots of Langer's Philosophical Project: On the Logic of Meaning
2. Symbolic Transformation: Philosophy's New Key
3. Meaning after Language: Ritual, Myth, and Art
4. Framing the Art Symbol: Forms of Feeling
5. Art Forms: The Logic of Primary Illusions
6. The Mind of Feeling
7. From Acts to Symbolization
8. The Symbolic Animal
9. Placing Langer's Philosophical Project
List of References
Index

This book is based on wide and deep erudition, written in an accessible, engaging, and eloquent manner.

Robert E. Innis is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. He is author of Semiotil#²