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The Symbol Theory: Norbert Elias

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53 views3 pages

The Symbol Theory: Norbert Elias

symbol

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quintan83
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Symbol 0_The Court Society 03/08/2011 15:13 Page iii

norbert elias

The Symbol Theory

The Collected Works of Norbert Elias volume 13


Edited by Richard Kilminster

university college dublin press


Preas Choliste Ollscoile Bhaile tha Cliath
Symbol 0_The Court Society 03/08/2011 15:13 Page iv

First published in three parts, edited and with an introduction


by Richard Kilminster, in Theory, Culture and Society, 1989
First published as a book under the title The Symbol Theory, 1991
by Sage, London
Norbert Elias Foundation, Amsterdam, 1989, 1991

This revised English edition published 2011


by University College Dublin Press
as volume 13 of the Collected Works of Norbert Elias
Norbert Elias Foundation, Amsterdam, 2011

isbn 978-1-906359-10-2
University College Dublin Press
Newman House, 86 St Stephens Green Dublin 2, Ireland
www.ucdpress.ie

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,


stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior permission of the publisher

Cataloguing in Publication data available from the British Library

Typeset in Scotland in Baskerville by Ryan Shiels


Designed by Lyn Davies
Printed in England on acid-free paper
by CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham
Symbol 0_The Court Society 03/08/2011 15:13 Page v

contents

Norbert Elias (18971990) vii


Note on the text xi

the symbol theory


Introduction 3
1 Towards a comprehensive understanding of human beings:
reconfiguring sociology, evolutionary biology and philosophy 32
2 Languages as learned sound patterns and symbols as the
fifth dimension 53
3 Symbol emancipation as an evolutionary breakthrough 67
4 The high survival value of communication by learned sound-symbols 73
5 To speak, to think, to know: the sociogenesis and psychogenesis of
reality-congruent symbols 85
6 Human society as a level of nature: beyond idealism and materialism 105
7 From truth to reality congruence: beyond traditional philosophical
theories of knowledge 134
8 Concept formation in the five-dimensional human world: beyond
abstraction explanations 149
9 The distant past and the long future: reality-congruent knowledge
and human survival 155

Textual variants 175


Bibliography 181
Index 187

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