Susanne Katherina Langer (née Knauth)

1. Introduction

Susanne Katherina Langer (1895–1985) was an American philosopher whose systematic theory of symbols reshaped 20th‑century discussions of art, mind, and culture. Working largely within Anglo‑American analytic philosophy yet drawing heavily on German traditions, she proposed that human beings live in a universe articulated by symbolic forms—not only by language and logic, but also by myth, ritual, and above all art.

Langer is best known for her distinction between discursive symbolism (characteristic of language and logic) and presentational symbolism (characteristic of art and other non‑verbal forms). On her account, artworks are not confused statements or private emotional outbursts, but expressive forms that display the “logical form of feeling.” This approach aimed to give art a status parallel to science as a mode of understanding, though of a different kind.

Her work spans three main areas: philosophical method and logic, a general theory of symbolism and aesthetics, and a late, ambitious philosophy of mind that integrates biology, psychology, and culture. Across these domains she argued that feeling is not an irrational residue but a structured, intelligible aspect of mental life that can be investigated through its symbolic manifestations.

Langer’s writings became unusually influential outside philosophy, circulating among artists, critics, educators, and cultural theorists. While some commentators regard her as central to analytic aesthetics, others position her at the margins of mainstream analytic debates. Current scholarship continues to reassess her ideas on non‑propositional meaning, the embodied mind, and the cognitive status of art.

2. Life and Historical Context

2.1 Biographical Outline

Susanne Katherina Knauth was born in New York City on 20 December 1895 to German immigrant parents. She grew up bilingual, spending parts of her childhood in German‑speaking environments, which exposed her early to German literature, music, and philosophy. She studied at Radcliffe College, where she completed her PhD in philosophy in 1924 under Alfred North Whitehead. In the 1920s she married William Langer, a historian; they later divorced, and she continued to publish as Susanne K. Langer.

Her teaching career included positions at Radcliffe, various women’s colleges, and ultimately Brandeis University (1954–1962), where she became Professor of Philosophy. After retiring from regular teaching, she lived a relatively secluded scholarly life in New England, working primarily on her multi‑volume Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling until her death in Old Lyme, Connecticut, on 17 July 1985.

2.2 Historical and Intellectual Setting

Langer’s career unfolded against several major developments:

Commentators often note that Langer worked at the intersection of these movements, adapting the techniques of analytic philosophy to topics—art, ritual, myth, emotion—more commonly associated with continental or humanistic traditions.

3. Intellectual Development and Influences

3.1 Early Formation: Logic and Method

In her early phase, culminating in The Practice of Philosophy (1926) and An Introduction to Symbolic Logic (1937), Langer’s work was shaped by Alfred North Whitehead’s emphasis on logical form and by the broader Russellian program in analytic philosophy. She adopted formal tools to clarify philosophical problems and became conversant with emerging symbolic logic. Commentators see this period as laying the conceptual groundwork for her later expansion of “symbol” beyond strictly logical contexts.

3.2 Turn to Symbol and Culture

During the 1930s and early 1940s, Langer increasingly engaged with problems of meaning in myth, language, and art. Many scholars identify Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms as a decisive influence: Cassirer’s view that culture consists of distinct symbolic systems (language, myth, science) provided a model for her own broader symbol theory. She also drew selectively on American pragmatism and on Whitehead’s process metaphysics, which encouraged viewing mind and culture as dynamic, evolving structures.

This development culminated in Philosophy in a New Key (1942), where she proposed a new “key” for understanding human rationality: symbolic activity in its diverse modes.

3.3 Systematic Aesthetics and Cross‑Art Comparison

In the 1940s–1950s, Langer’s focus shifted to a systematic account of the arts. Influences often cited include:

Feeling and Form (1948) synthesizes these strands into a cross‑media aesthetic theory.

3.4 Late Integration of Biology and Mind

From the 1950s onward, Langer turned to the life sciences, incorporating neurophysiology, ethology, and developmental psychology into Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling (1967–1982). She interpreted these fields through her symbolic framework, positing feeling as a fundamental, biologically grounded mode of mental process. Some scholars see this late work as influenced, at a distance, by Whitehead’s organic metaphysics; others stress her engagement with mid‑20th‑century neuroscience and systems theory rather than direct philosophical models.

4. Major Works and Their Themes

4.1 Overview of Principal Works

4.2 Early Works: Method and Logic

In The Practice of Philosophy, Langer addresses how philosophical problems arise and how they may be resolved by clarifying the symbols we use. She explores the role of conceptual frameworks and analogies in philosophical thinking. An Introduction to Symbolic Logic presents formal techniques but also reflects on their limitations, a tension later extended to her distinction between discursive and presentational symbolism.

4.3 Symbolism and Aesthetics

Philosophy in a New Key introduces her claim that humans are “symbol‑making animals.” It analyzes language, myth, and art as different symbolic forms, arguing that art constitutes a distinct, non‑discursive mode of meaning. This work is often seen as bridging logic, cultural theory, and aesthetics.

4.4 Systematic Aesthetic Theory

Feeling and Form develops a cross‑art theory centered on expressive form. Langer analyzes music, painting, sculpture, architecture, dance, and film, proposing that each articulates patterns of feeling through its own medium‑specific logic. Problems of Art revisits these ideas in more accessible essays on topics such as artistic illusion, abstraction, and style.

4.5 Philosophy of Mind and Feeling

The three volumes of Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling extend her symbol theory into a naturalistic account of mind. She explores how organic processes give rise to sentience, how feeling structures consciousness, and how symbolic forms emerge from biological and cultural evolution. The work is encyclopedic, drawing on contemporary science to theorize the continuity from animal life to human symbolic imagination.

5. Core Ideas: Symbols, Art, and Feeling

5.1 Symbol as Organ of Understanding

For Langer, a symbol is not merely a sign that points to something else but an “instrument of thought” that shapes how we grasp its object. She distinguishes natural signs (like smoke indicating fire) from genuine symbols, which organize and articulate meaning.

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“The symbol is not merely a substitute for the thing, but an instrument of thought about the thing.”
— Susanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key

5.2 Discursive and Presentational Symbolism

A central thesis is the contrast between:

Langer argues that presentational forms can express aspects of experience—especially temporal and affective patterns—that discursive language cannot adequately convey.

5.3 Art as Expressive Form

On her view, a work of art is not a raw outburst of emotion but a constructed expressive form that embodies the “logical form of feeling”:

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“Art is the creation of forms symbolic of human feeling.”
— Susanne K. Langer, Philosophy in a New Key

Art organizes rhythms, tensions, resolutions, and qualitative contrasts into sensuous structures. Proponents interpret this as granting art cognitive significance without reducing it to propositional content. Critics sometimes question whether “logical form of feeling” is sufficiently precise or whether all arts fit this model.

5.4 Feeling as Structured and Intelligible

Langer maintains that feelings have patterns—dynamic, temporal, and relational—that can be symbolized even when they cannot be stated. Art, therefore, “creates forms for our feelings, not to express them” in a merely cathartic sense, but to make them objectively perceivable and shareable. This view positions aesthetic experience as a distinct mode of understanding oriented toward the morphology of human affective life.

6. Methodology and Use of Science

6.1 Philosophical Method: Logical Clarity Applied Broadly

Langer’s method combines analytic techniques with wide‑ranging cultural observation. From her early work in logic she retains an emphasis on:

• Clarifying key terms (e.g., “symbol,” “expression,” “feeling”)
• Distinguishing types of symbolic forms
• Analyzing formal structures rather than individual psychological states

However, she applies these tools to domains often considered resistant to analysis—art, myth, ritual—by focusing on their forms rather than on subjective reports.

6.2 Engagement with Empirical Sciences

In Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling, Langer systematically incorporates empirical findings:

She does not treat scientific results as decisive proofs but as data to be interpreted within a philosophical framework of symbolic form.

6.3 Conceptual Synthesis Rather Than Empiricism

Commentators often describe Langer’s method as synthesizing rather than strictly empirical. She surveys broad literatures, drawing connections and analogies to construct a unified picture of mind and culture. Proponents see this as an ambitious, integrative style comparable to system‑building in earlier philosophy. Critics contend that her use of science is sometimes selective or outpaces the evidence, relying on speculative extrapolations from then‑current theories.

6.4 Relation to Analytic and Continental Traditions

Methodologically, Langer occupies an intermediate position:

• Like analytic philosophers, she values logical distinctions and clarity.
• Like some continental thinkers and neo‑Kantians, she undertakes large‑scale, quasi‑systematic accounts of culture and subjectivity.

Scholars debate whether her work should be read primarily as a contribution to analytic philosophy, to a Cassirer‑style philosophy of culture, or as a hybrid that resists simple classification.

7. Contributions to Aesthetics and Philosophy of Mind

7.1 Aesthetics: Art as a Mode of Understanding

Langer’s most widely noted contribution to aesthetics is her claim that art is an autonomous symbolic form with its own logic. She argues that artworks:

• Are presentational symbols that show, rather than say, patterns of experience.
• Embody the logical form of feeling, making emotion intelligible without translating it into propositions.
• Differ by medium, each with its specific resources and constraints (e.g., temporality in music, spatial configuration in painting, kinesthetic patterns in dance).

This framework contributed to the emergence of analytic aesthetics by giving philosophers tools to analyze art’s structure and meaning without reducing it to psychology or ethics. Supporters highlight its cross‑art applicability; critics question whether it over‑generalizes across artistic practices or underestimates representational and semantic aspects of many works.

7.2 Medium‑Specific Analyses

In Feeling and Form, Langer offers detailed accounts of particular arts:

These analyses have been used both as starting points in later theory and as targets for critique, especially where new media or non‑Western forms do not fit neatly into her categories.

7.3 Philosophy of Mind: Feeling as Foundational

In Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling, Langer advances three interconnected claims:

1. Primacy of feeling: Feeling is the basic mode of mental activity from which perception, thought, and self‑consciousness develop.
2. Continuity with life: Mental phenomena emerge from organic processes; there is no sharp ontological break between life and mind.
3. Symbolization of feeling: Human consciousness is distinctive in its capacity to symbolize its own patterns of feeling through language, art, and culture.

Supporters see this as anticipating contemporary “embodied” and “affective” approaches in cognitive science. Critics argue that her account remains largely qualitative and that its compatibility with current neuroscientific models is uncertain. Nonetheless, her integration of affect into a broad theory of mind remains a reference point in discussions of emotion, embodiment, and symbolic cognition.

8. Reception, Criticisms, and Debates

8.1 Contemporary Reception

Upon publication, Philosophy in a New Key and Feeling and Form attracted significant attention beyond philosophy, especially among artists, critics, and educators. Within academic philosophy, responses were mixed:

• Some analytic philosophers welcomed her extension of logical and linguistic tools to art and culture.
• Others regarded her system‑building and engagement with feeling as insufficiently rigorous or too speculative.

Her later Mind volumes received more limited attention, in part due to their length and interdisciplinary scope.

8.2 Major Lines of Criticism

Commentators have raised several recurring objections:

Feminist scholars have also examined how gender and institutional barriers shaped both the reception and the marginalization of her work, though views differ on how directly these factors affected assessments of its content.

8.3 Debates Over Classification and Influence

There is ongoing debate about how to classify Langer’s philosophy:

• Some position her firmly within analytic aesthetics, emphasizing her training and argumentative style.
• Others align her more with a Cassirer‑inspired philosophy of culture or with process and systems metaphysics.
• A further view treats her as a “bridge figure” whose hybrid position explains both her broad cultural impact and her relative neglect in specialized philosophical canons.

Recent scholarship has revisited her ideas in light of semiotics, embodied cognition, and affect theory, leading to renewed discussions about the contemporary relevance and limitations of her symbol theory.

9. Influence Beyond Philosophy: Arts, Semiotics, and Media

9.1 Impact on Artistic Practice and Criticism

Langer’s notion of art as expressive form influenced several artistic fields:

• Music: Her account of music as a symbolic “image of feeling” has been cited by music theorists and composers interested in non‑programmatic meaning.
• Visual arts: Critics and curators drew on her ideas of “virtual space” and formal organization when interpreting abstract and modernist painting.
• Dance and theater: Her analyses of gesture and movement informed discussions of choreography as a symbolic language of the body.

In many art schools and conservatories during the mid‑20th century, her books were used in aesthetics courses, shaping how practitioners conceptualized their own work.

9.2 Contributions to Semiotics and Symbol Theory

Langer’s broad conception of symbolic forms has been viewed as parallel to, and at times convergent with, developments in semiotics:

Semioticians have both drawn on and critiqued Langer’s tendency to privilege art as the paradigmatic presentational symbol, questioning whether this captures the full diversity of sign systems.

9.3 Media, Communication, and Cultural Studies

Her analyses of film, radio, and mass media as new configurations of symbolic form resonated with early media studies and communication theory. In particular:

• Media theorists used her ideas to frame film as a unique synthesis of visual, auditory, and narrative structures.
• Cultural critics found in her concept of symbolic form a way to discuss ritual, advertising, and popular culture without reducing them to mere reflection of economic or ideological structures.

While she is not always cited directly in contemporary media studies, traces of her vocabulary—especially “symbolic form” and “presentational form”—appear in discussions of visual culture, performance, and design.

10. Legacy and Historical Significance

10.1 Place in 20th‑Century Philosophy

Langer occupies a distinctive, somewhat liminal position in 20th‑century thought. She:

• Helped establish aesthetics as a legitimate area within analytic philosophy at a time when many colleagues focused narrowly on language and science.
• Extended the concept of symbol beyond logic and semantics to include myth, ritual, and art, bringing a Cassirer‑like philosophy of culture into Anglophone debates.
• Proposed one of the earliest comprehensive philosophies of mind centered on feeling, embodiment, and symbolic activity.

Some historians of philosophy regard her as a major, if under‑recognized, figure in the development of analytic aesthetics; others see her primarily as an important contributor to a broader, interdisciplinary philosophy of culture.

10.2 Long‑Term Influences

Langer’s legacy can be traced in several ongoing discussions:

Her work continues to be revisited in light of contemporary interests in non‑verbal cognition, cross‑cultural aesthetics, and the role of images and media in shaping experience.

10.3 Ongoing Reassessment

Recent scholarship has begun to reassess Langer’s status, examining archival materials, correspondence, and her position as a woman philosopher in a male‑dominated academy. Some researchers argue that institutional and gender biases contributed to her marginalization in canonical histories. Others focus on internal philosophical reasons—such as the systematic, speculative character of her late work—for her mixed reception.

While interpretations differ, there is broad agreement that Langer’s attempts to theorize symbols, art, and feeling across logical, aesthetic, and biological registers make her an important reference point for understanding the evolution of 20th‑century philosophy’s engagement with culture and mind.