Henry Wieman and Otis Walter offer the human symbol-using capacity to scrutinize with the ethics of communication. According to the text, “this capacity to transform the raw data of sensory experience into symbols is viewed as uniquely human.” (p.37) This capacity can also use symbols to refer to other symbols, or goals, values or, ideals, and it passes from generation to generation through accumulation of each insights. Wieman and Walter originated the term symbol-using capacity and various contemporary scholars share their assumptions, including Kenneth Burke.
Burke used the theory for the justification of his definition of man, or the definition of human. His definition of man states:
Man is the symbol-using (symbol-making, symbol-misusing) animal, inventor of the …show more content…
Each category has its own meaning, yet they all come together to make a concrete explanation of the human. It retains that humans use of symbols to communicate, the usage of negativity in their language, disconnection from nature by man’s tools and capabilities, the ability to move up and down social structures, and the desire to be better than who they are distinct them from other creatures.
Symbol-using
It is the most important feature that define humans. Reality is created using symbols because people translate the visions and goals of the people that surround it every day. Furthermore, the actions of human are filled with symbols.
Inventor of the Negative
As for the inventor of the negative, Burke struggled to use this word due to the thought of language invented man. Negatives are morally a characteristic of symbol systems because its existence in nature is absent. According to Dictionary.com, the word moral defines as “the concern with principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character.” This word is a conception of the human and is formed by the indication of negative