Publications

Publication details [#3100]

Burkhardt, Armin. 1996. Geballte Zeichen: Das Symbol und seine Deutungen. PLOS ONE 18 (4) : 461–482. 22 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
German

Abstract

The many definitions of the concept of symbol proposed in different disciplines and periods of history are surveyed, and it is concluded that all this variety produced a confusion to the point that the term "symbol" is in a crisis. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's, Umberto Eco's, and Adam Schaff's conceptions of symbol are outlined and a working definition is tested by studying the use of the rose as a symbol in Western art and literature. It is concluded that symbol is the "reinterpretation of a concrete object into a sign of the abstract-ideal" and this reinterpretation involves metonymic, metaphorical, and synecdochic processes. (Copyright 1997, Sociological Abstracts, Inc., all rights reserved.) (Z. Dubiel in LLBA 1997, vol. 31, n. 5)