Symbol Philosophy

Anton Hardy received his doctorate in psychology from Clark University. Concerned about the path psychology was taking with its focus on behavior, he
searched for the cause of this direction in the disciplines philosophical assumptions. These stemmed from the paradigm of Realism, he found, a system
that denigrated everything that was mental. Looking for a paradigm that would be friendlier to psychologys human subject, he adopted the symbol philosophy
of Ernst Cassirer. He applied this paradigm to psychology in his book Psychology and the Critical Revolution, and is elaborating its implications further
in the present book.



The author introduces the little-known symbol philosophy of Ernst Cassirer and demonstrates how it opens the door to mental life. In clear and readable
prose, he shows how symbol philosophy enables us to understand consciousness and creativity, two subjects that have long been resistant to explanation.
He explores such matters as the nature of our perceiving, the way in which our concepts are formed, and the role that language plays in our seeing and
thinking. Overcoming traditional divisions between objective and subjective, I and world, and mind and body, he refers frequently to our
everyday experience to validate his ideas.



Not since Suzanne Langers Philosophy in a New Key has such a vigorous effort been made to bring Cassirers seminal ideas before the public. The
result is a breath of fresh air for a psychology that is made shallow by a narrow scientism and a philosophy that is in danger of becoming irrelevant. The
author writes for the general reader rather than the professional scholar, and his prose is highly engaging and readable.