Out of Context: On Symbol (Definitions)

"Generally speaking, symbol is some form of external existence immediately present to the senses, which, however, is not accepted for its own worth, as it lies before us in its immediacy, but for the wider and more general significance which it offers to our reflection." (Georg W F Hegel, "Ästhetik" Vol. 2, 1817)

"A symbol [...] is, in the strictest sense, an instrument for the discovery of facts, and is of value mainly with reference to this end, by its adaptation to which it is to be judged." (Benjamin C Brodie, "The Calculus of Chemical Observations", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Vol. 156, 1866)

"Symbols are essential to comprehensive argument." (Benjamin Peirce, "On the Uses and Transformations of Linear Algebra", 1875)

"Now, a symbol is not, properly speaking, either true or false; it is, rather, something more or less well selected to stand for the reality it represents, and pictures that reality in a more or less precise, or a more or less detailed manner." (Pierre-Maurice-Marie Duhem, "The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory", 1906)

"A symbol is language and yet not language." (Robin G Collingwood, "The Principles of Art", 1938)

"A symbol is understood when we conceive the idea it presents." (Susanne Langer, "Feeling and Form: A Theory of Art", 1953)

"The symbol is the tool which gives man his power, and it is the same tool whether the symbols are images or words, mathematical signs or mesons." (Jacob Bronowski, "The Reach of Imagination", 1967)

"Through cybernetics, the symbol is embodied in the apparatus - with which it is not to be confused, the apparatus being just its support. And it is embodied in it in a literally trans-subjective way." (Jacques Lacan, 1988)

"Every phenomenon on earth is symbolic, and each symbol is an open gate through which the soul, if it is ready, can enter into the inner part of the world [...]" (Hermann Hesse, "The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse", 1995)

"A symbol is a mental representation regarding the internal reality referring to its object by a convention and produced by the conscious interpretation of a sign." (Lars Skyttner, "General Systems Theory: Ideas and Applications", 2001)