Symbolism is a primary characteristic of mind, displayed in every variety of thought and department of culture. This book explores aspects of symbolic function in language, science, and art as well as ritual, play, and the forming of worldviews. It restates fundamental themes in my earlier work, follows up prior lines of inquiry in the development of such themes, and deals with several new problems arising in the course of further inquiries.

A study of pragmatism long ago convinced me of the representative character of thought – its functioning as mediated throughout by symbols. My book Four Pragmatists presented this view of thought as vigorously argued by C. S. Peirce, William James, G. H. Mead, and John Dewey, and my Of Human Potential restated such a view as important for education.

Foremost among the capacities presupposed by human action, I wrote