Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art

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July 1, 2026

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Susanne K. Langer's Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite, and Art (1942) explores how art, unlike scientific language, uses "nondiscursive symbols" to convey meaning. Langer distinguished these from the "discursive symbols" of scientific language, suggesting that art, particularly music, expresses intuitive knowledge of life patterns like feelings and emotions that ordinary language cannot capture.1

The book examines how symbols, which are devices for making abstractions, are fundamental to human perception and culture. Langer proposed that art symbolizes states of mind through "presentational symbols" whose meaning is conveyed morphologically, rather than through explicit rules of reference found in language. This approach highlights art's unique ability to express complex human experiences.231

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aesthetics
Symbolism in art
…proposed by Langer in her Philosophy in a New Key (1942) and Feeling and Form (1953). She argues that works of art symbolize states of mind (“feelings”), but that the relation is not to be explained in terms of any rule of reference such as operates in language. Works of…
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…proposed by Langer in her Philosophy in a New Key (1942) and Feeling and Form (1953). She argues that works of art symbolize states of mind (“feelings”), but that the relation is not to be explained in terms of any rule of reference such as operates in language. Works of…
Read More

Susanne K. Langer
In her best-known book, Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite and Art (1942), she attempted to give art the claim to meaning that science was given through Whitehead’s analysis of symbolic modes. Distinguishing nondiscursive symbols of art from discursive symbols of scientific…
Read More
In her best-known book, Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite and Art (1942), she attempted to give art the claim to meaning that science was given through Whitehead’s analysis of symbolic modes. Distinguishing nondiscursive symbols of art from discursive symbols of scientific…
Read More