Language and Symbolic Power

We have summarized the essential of this book by the author. ABOUT SYMBOLIC POWER Unlike other types of exercise of power, THE SYMBOLIC POWER THAT IS EXERCISED ONLY IF IT COUNTS "WITH THE COMPLICITY OF THOSE WHO DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THAT THEY SUFFER IT OR EVEN THAT THEY EXERCISE IT." 1. The "symbolic systems" (art, religion, language) as structuring structures There are authors and schools of thought (Kantian idealists such as Humboldt or Cassirer, linguists such as Salir-Whorf) who say that symbolic systems or universes - myths, languages, art, science, etc. - BUILD THE WORLD OF OBJECTS, which would be " SYMBOLIC TYPES ". In this way, KNOWLEDGE APPEARS AS "ACTIVE", BUILDING (STRUCTURING) THE MATERIAL WORLD of things. The ideas of things determine and shape the things themselves. An author who also adheres to this vision is DURKHEIM, for whom there are no universal classifications of things, but rather social types, which are arbitrary because they are related to a specific group in a given society.