Susanne K. Langer

Susanne K. Langer (1895-1985), American philosopher, who wrote extensively on aesthetics and on analytic and linguistic philosophy, born in New York City. After graduation from Radcliffe College, she lectured at Columbia University (1945-50) and then served as professor of philosophy at Connecticut College, New London (1954-62), when she became emeritus professor. In her principal work, Philosophy in a New Key: A Study of the Symbolism of Reason, Rite and Art (1942), she sought to provide art with the same basis of meaning as science had been given by other analytic philosophers. Analyzing symbols, she made an important distinction between nondiscursive symbols found in art, which allow a variety of interpretations, and discursive, representational symbols found in science and ordinary language, which have dictionary meanings. Langer's other writings include Feeling and Form (1953) and Mind: An Essay on Human Feeling (2 volumes, 1967-72).