Cassirer and Reference

Cassirer, and Langer after him, hold that what essentially distinguishes Humanity from the rest of the animals is its Symbol-making and -using activities. Cassirer cites, as a decisive evolutionary moment, when an extension of a finger becomes a pointing at something beyond the finger. For, it is at this moment that what had been, at most, an immediate gesture, becomes freed from materiality and specificity, so that Language discovers its potential as a representational medium, i. e. as Symbolic. But, there are two shortcomings to the primacy that he thereby accords to the referential function of Language. First, how finger-extension becomes meaningful, let alone referential, cannot be explained by a Referential theory of Meaning. Secondly, what many believe to be the distinctive characteristic of Humanity, namely its Rationality, is epitomized by non-referential inferential activities, e. g. syllogistic reasoning. In other words, Reference can account for neither its origin as meaningful nor its supplanting by Inference. More generally, Cassirer's and Langer's thesis is internally incoherent--that Symbol-making and -using is an end-in-itself entails that the ultimate value of a Symbol is non-referential, but a Symbol, on their account, is essentially referential.