SYMBOLISM
Its Meaning and Effect
BY
ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD
F.R.S., SC.D. (CAMBRIDGE), HON. D.SC. (MANCHESTER). HON. LL.D. (ST.
ANDREWS), HON. D.SC. (UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN), HON. SC.D.
(HARVARD AND YALE). FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE IN
THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE AND PROFESSOR
OF PHILOSOPHY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
Barbour-Page Lectures
University of Virginia
1927
New York
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
1927
All rights reserved.
Copyright, 1927,
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped.
Published November, 1927.
Printed in the United States of America by
J.J. LITTLE AND IVES COMPANY, NEW YORK
DEDICATION
These chapters were written before I had seen the Washington monument which faces the Capitol in the City of Washington, and before I had enjoyed the experience of crossing the borders of the State of Virginia—a great experience for an Englishman.
Virginia, that symbol for romance throughout the world of English speech: Virginia, which was captured for that world in the romantic period of English history by Sir Walter Raleigh, its most romantic figure: Virginia, which has been true to its origin and has steeped its history in romance.
Romance does not yield unbroken happiness: Sir Walter Raleigh suffered for his romance. Romance does not creep along the ground; like the memorial to Washington, it reaches upward—a silver thread uniting earth to the blue of heaven above.
April 18, 1927.
PREFACE
In accordance with the terms of the Barbour-Page Foundation, these lectures are published by the University of Virginia. The author owes his thanks to the authorities of the university for their courtesy in conforming to his wishes in respect to some important details of publication. With the exception of a few trifling changes the lectures are printed as delivered.
These lectures will be best understood by reference to some portions of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding. The author’s acknowledgments are due to Locke’s Theory of Knowledge and Its Historical Relations by Professor James Gibson, to Prolegomena to an Idealist Theory of Knowledge by Professor Norman Kemp Smith, and to Scepticism and Animal Faith by George Santayana.
Harvard University, June, 1927.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER I | |||
| CHAPTER | PAGE | ||
| 1. | Kinds of Symbolism | 1 | |
| 2. | Symbolism and Perception | 2 | |
| 3. | On Methodology | 5 | |
| 4. | Fallibility and Symbolism | 6 | |
| 5. | Definition of Symbolism | 7 | |
| 6. | Experience as Activity | 9 | |
| 7. | Language | 10 | |
| 8. | Presentational Immediacy | 13 | |
| 9. | Perceptive Experience | 16 | |
| 10. | Symbolic Reference in Perceptive Experience | 18 | |
| 11. | Mental and Physical | 20 | |
| 12. | Rôles of Sense-data and Space in Presentational Immediacy | 21 | |
| 13. | Objectification | 25 | |
| CHAPTER II | |||
| 1. | Hume on Causal Efficacy | 30 | |
| 2. | Kant and Causal Efficacy | 37 | |
| 3. | Direct Perception of Causal Efficacy | 39 | |
| 4. | Primitiveness of Causal Efficacy | 43 | |
| 5. | The Intersection of the Modes of Perception | 49 | |
| 6. | Localization | 53 | |
| 7. | The Contrast Between Accurate Definition and Importance | 56 | |
| 8. | Conclusion | 59 | |
| CHAPTER III | |||
| Uses of Symbolism | 60 |