Animal symbolicum  

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"From childhood men have an instinct for representation, and in this respect, differs from the other animals that he is far more imitative and learns his first lessons by representing things." -Poetics, Aristotle, tr. W.H. Fyfe

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Symbolicum is a term that was used by the German neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer. The tradition since Aristotle has defined a human being as a rational animal. However, Cassirer claimed that man's outstanding characteristic is not in his metaphysical or physical nature, but rather in his work. Humanity cannot be known directly, but has to be known through the analysis of the symbolic universe that man has created historically. Thus man should be defined as animal symbolicum (a symbol-making or symbolizing animal). On this basis, Cassirer sought to understand human nature by exploring symbolic forms in all aspects of a human being's experience. His work is represented in his three-volume Philosophy of Symbolic Forms and is summarized in his Essay on Man.

W. J. T. Mitchell used this term in his essay on "representation" (in Critical Terms for Literary Study by Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin) to say that:

"man, for many philosophers both ancient and modern, is the 'representational animal,' homo symbolicum, the creature whose distinctive character is the creation and manipulation of signs - things that 'stand for' or 'take the place of' something else." [1]

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Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Animal symbolicum" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.

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