Symbols and Symbolic Reasoning

What is a symbol?

A symbol is something that represents and points to another object, person, event...etc. Signs in the street act as symbols that refer to an instruction.

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How are symbols related to thinking?

In order to think about anything, there has to be something in the mind that points to that object of thought. It may be a visual image of the object, a description, a name or any kind of identifier that points to that object that is outside the mind. With that said, this referring pointer in the mind acts as a symbol such that when one thinks of the symbol, the thought applies to the referred to object. In other words, one thinks of the object "in terms of" the symbol/ the symbol is the representation of the object in the mind.

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Why symbols?

• A symbol is accessible to the mind at any time even when the object of thought is not accessible to perception, i.e. thinking of a person without them being in front of you.
• In order to give a name (symbol) to an object, you separate that object from its surroundings and recognize it as a unit which is a basic process in any kind of thought called chinking in order to understand the world. Using symbols sort of analyzes the complex input from the world and turns them into distinguishable and identifiable objects.
• Not all kinds of objects are accessible to perception, not only are they currently out of sight they are by their nature not physical. A symbol that points to a non-physical object transforms it into something that can be seen, heard as if it was physical and hence accessible to the mind as an object of thought. Example: An idea is not a tangible object. But how do we say "Listen to this idea." when an idea can not be heard? The answer is we listen to the expression of the idea, not the idea itself. We listen to words that represent the idea -----> Symbols that point to the idea. Note: One common mistake is confusing the representation with the thing itself.
• Symbols are a tool for managing complexity. Our minds can deal with limited amount of information simultaneously and that's where symbols come to the rescue in complex situations. Instead of thinking of all the details, one thinks only of the symbol neglecting the rest of the irrelevant details saving some mental space for other relevant pieces of information.

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Symbolic Systems

A system is a group of entities that work together for a unified purpose. Examples of symbolic systems:

• Language: Words are symbols that refer to objects.
• Diagrams
• Mathematics: Numbers, sets, shapes, relations, variables are all symbols that also have another powerful property that will be discussed later. Yes, that's abstraction.