Symbol

==Concepts and definitions==
Symbols are a means of complex communication that often can have multiple levels of meaning.<ref name= "Womack">Womack, Mari. Symbols and Meaning: A Concise Introduction. California: AltaMira Press, 2005.</ref> Symbols are the basis of all human understanding and serve as vehicles of conception for all human knowledge.<ref>Langer, Susanne K.  A Theory of Art, Developed From: Philosophy in a New Key. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1953.</ref> Symbols facilitate understanding of the world in which we live, thus serving as the grounds upon which we make judgments.<ref name="Catherine">Palczewski, Catherine, and Ice, Richard, and Fritch, John. Rhetoric in Civic Life. Pennsylvania: Strata Publishing, Inc., 2012.</ref> In this way, people use symbols not only to make sense of the world around them, but also to [[Identification (psychology)|identify]] and cooperate in society through [[constitutive rhetoric]].

Human cultures use symbols to express specific ideologies and social structures and to represent aspects of their specific culture. Thus, symbols carry meanings that depend upon one's cultural background. As a result, the meaning of a symbol is not inherent in the symbol itself but is culturally learned.<ref name="Womack" />

[[Heinrich Zimmer]] gives a concise overview of the nature, and perennial relevance, of symbols.
{{quote|Concepts and words are symbols, just as visions, rituals, and images are; so too are the manners and customs of daily life. Through all of these a transcendent reality is mirrored. There are so many metaphors reflecting and implying something which, though thus variously expressed, is ineffable, though thus rendered multiform, remains inscrutable. Symbols hold the mind to truth but are not themselves the truth, hence it is delusory to borrow them. Each civilisation, every age, must bring forth its own."<ref>{{cite book|first=Heinrich|last=Zimmer|editor-first=Joseph|editor-last=Campbell|title=Philosophies of India|year=1969|publisher=Princeton Univ. Press|location=Princeton|isbn=0-691-01758-1|pages=1–2|edition=9. paperback print.}}</ref>}}

In the book ''Signs and Symbols'', it is stated that
{{quote|A symbol{{nbsp}}... is a visual image or sign representing an idea – a deeper indicator of universal truth.<ref>Dorling Kindersley Limited. ''Signs and Symbols''. p.6. {{ISBN|978-0-7566-3393-6}}. 2008</ref>}}