45

45.305 Language, Signs, and Symbols

Spring 2009

R. E. Innis

Office hours: Olney 102C M 12:00-02:00, Tu and Th 2:30-4:30, and by appointment

Human beings are sign-users and meaning-makers. This course will investigate or ‘rotate,’ from a variety of points of view, some paradigmatic and distinctive forms of sign-constituted meaning-making. While it will give special and predominant attention to language and its place within the vast systems of signs in which meanings are embodied and within which we live and construct our worlds, it will range at times far beyond the realm of language into cultural systems and into nature as a field of meaning.

We will see that while language both exemplifies and realizes in the highest degree our meaning-making capacities as human beings, it also functions alongside of and is embedded in other powerful and indispensable sign and symbol systems, to which it must be carefully compared. Consequently, one of the major goals of the course will be to work out a general theory of signs that applies not just to language but to other ‘carriers’ of meaning, such as images, diagrams, graphs, and works of art, patterns of behavior, and natural signs.

We will focus upon, or circle around, the following principal themes:

—how processes of symbolic transformation and the realm of signs function as the primary and universal matrices of human self-formation and self-meaning, understood as processes of symbolic action and symbolic communication, encompassing both the individual and the social realms

—how we are to model the various configurations of signs and sign-functions—language, sacrament, myth, religion, and art—their differentiated and intertwined relations both to one another and to the ‘things’ they ‘refer to’ or ‘make present’

—how we are embodied in language and how this affects our ability to participate in and to ‘read’ signs into as well as in nature and how language, which John Dewey called the ‘tool of tools,’ is an essential but by no means exclusive instrument for the cognitive ‘appropriation’ or ‘articulation’ of the world

—how and in what ways the fundamental and universal phenomenon of metaphor and figurative language grounds our conceptual frameworks and world horizons

—how language shapes our conception of ourselves and functions as an access structure to and foundation of one’s cultural identity

—how cultural systems of all sorts are structured as sign systems and are central to the structuring of our identities

Required texts:

Susanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art. Harvard University Press

Joseph Campbell, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space. New World Library

Eva Hoffman, Lost in Translation. Penguin Books

The following required texts can be accessed from the course main webpage or by clicking on the electronic version of this syllabus

G. H. Mead, Social Consciousness and the Consciousness of Meaning

G. H. Mead, The Social Self

C. S. Peirce, What is a Sign?

Selected supplementary materials will be posted on the webpage or their web address given for downloading.

The course will follow the sequence of topics found in the readings.

Symbolic Transformation: Forms of Human Meaning-Making

—the notion of symbolic transformation and symbolic forms

—the logic of signs and symbols

—discursive and presentational forms

—language as a symbolic form

—life symbols: the roots of sacrament

—life symbols: the roots of myth

—art as a symbolic form

—the fabric of meaning

Exemplifications of the Reaches of Symbolization: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion

—Cosmology and the Mythic Imagination

—Metaphor as Myth and as Religion

—The Way of Art: Between Immanence and Transcendence

Language and the Meanings of Life

—language and memory

—language and self-identity

—life-metaphors

—language and culture (language as perceptual filter)

—language and music

Requirements: a minimum of three blocks of written assignments, in the form of examination papers and essays. The assignments in the course as a whole will entail approximately 15-18 pages of written work. Students are expected to attend all classes and to participate in the discussions. Participation will be factored into your final grade. You have to be on time for class. Plan accordingly. Further, if you miss a class you must give me an index card specifying the date and reason for your absence. Do not make travel arrangements during the examination periods. No examination will be administered either early or late to accomodate you. Late papers, even if accepted, receive no comments or consultation meetings.