Cassirer, Dewey, and Expression

For Cassirer, part of the importance of the phenomenon of fundamental Expression is that in it, sign and signified are united. For example, the happiness expressed in a smile is inseparable from its physiognomic display. However, Dewey suggests that there is a distinction between the involuntary discharge and the deliberate, even sincere, display, of an emotion, e. g. between a smile that is the product of overflowing joy and the explicit use of the medium of the face to communicate that joy--only the latter is expressive, according to Dewey. To a certain extent, Dewey's objection is merely terminological, i. e. that the term 'expression' is to be applied only to a deliberate process, whereas Cassirer applies it more broadly. Still, Cassirer makes the further point that the communicative efficacy of a deliberate smile presupposes the acceptance of any smile as being indicative of a happy condition, regardless of whether or not it is a contrivance. So, as he contends, deliberate expression is only a refinement of primitive Expression.