This study analyzes Susanne Katherina Langer's philosophy of art, focussing on her latest work: Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling. The reason for this choice rests in the conviction that Langer's research proceeds in circular fashion around key issues that are continually reinterpreted and studied in ever-increasing depth, so that the analysis of individual works cannot be separated from an examination of the overall development of her thought.
Susanne Langer operates an interesting synthesis between Ernst Cassirer's Kantism and William James's philosophy and psychology. This synthesis enables her to articulate a semantic dimension that precedes categories, a dimension that is specific to the human mind and constitutes the foundation of all symbolism. From this perspective, the notion of feeling, which was already central in Feeling and Form, transcends the realm of sentiment. It comes to refer to the first attribution of meaning that characterizes the human experience and that can be communicated through symbolic production, thus becoming a shared patrimony that, in turn, is able to modify the very perception of reality.
The volume closes emphasizing the social dimension of the mind and the formative power of art.