Notes
Examples: [1] John A. Robertson, ‘Ethics and Policy in Embryonic Stem Cell Research,’ Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 9:2, 109–136 (1999). [2] Marina Oshana, Personal Autonomy in Society (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2006). [3] Elizabeth Gedge, ‘‘Healthy’ Human Embryos and Symbolic Harm,’ In J. Nisker, F. Baylis, I. Karpin, C. McLeod, & R. Mykitiuk, eds. The ‘Healthy’ Embryo: Social, Biomedical, Legal and Philosophical Perspectives (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).
Ibid. Besides the examples offered above, see Robert Merrihew Adams, ‘Symbolic Value,’ Midwest Studies in Philosophy, XXI (1997), 1–15.
See Gedge, op. cit.
See Robertson, op. cit.
Peirce worked on his theory of signs for his whole career. We need not go into Peircean details for present purposes. A good sense of the nuances of Peirce’s work is found in Albert Atkin, ‘Peirce’s Theory of Signs.’ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce-semiotics/.
E.g., [1] Alfred North Whitehead, Symbolism: Its Meaning and Effect (New York: Fordham University Press 1985; originally published 1927), 7–8; [2] Suzanne Langer, Philosophy in a New Key: A Study in the Symbolism of Reason, Rite and Art (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1942) 61.
E.g., [1] Merlin Donald, Origins of the Modern Mind: Three Stages in the Evolution of Culture and Cognition (Boston: Harvard University Press, 1991), 3; [2] Terrence Deacon, The Symbolic Species (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997), 70.
E.g., Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith (New York: Harper and Row, 1957), 41–43.
E.g., Mari Womack, Symbols and Meaning: A Concise Introduction (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2005), 3–5.
What about insults that deviate from moral norms? Can you be insulted, really, when I call you a bad murderer, because you perform so few murders? Your feelings might well be hurt, but have you been genuinely insulted? I will leave this nuance to another time and concentrate here on moralized interpretations of insults and compliments.
Robertson 1999, 126–127.
In this I broadly agree with Lisa Bortolotti and John Harris, ‘Embryos and Eagles: Symbolic Value in Research and Reproduction,’ Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics 15 (01): 22–34 (2005).
Adams 1997, 3.
E.g., Robertson 1999, 126–128; Adams 1997, 3–7.
1957, 45.
I would like to thank Rebecca Dawe for her attentive reading of a draft of this paper and reflective discussion of these and related issues.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sneddon, A. Symbolic Value. J Value Inquiry 50, 395–413 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-015-9519-4
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10790-015-9519-4