Philosophical Sketches.

Philosophical Sketches, Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, 1962. Half title + TP + [v] = Dedication page + vii-x = Introduction + [xi] = Contents + half title + 1-190 + 2 blank leaves. Octavo. First Edition. Philosophical Sketches is one of Langer's most important book because it signals the final stage of her most mature thought - which was published in the three-volume Mind series in 1967, 1972 and 1982 respectively. Here she offers preliminary indications of the main conclusions and pivotal concepts of that great trilogy which was still to come.In general, Philosophical Sketches argues that the "inward life" of human beings "is something language as such - as discursive symbolism - cannot render." What defies verbal expression, however, "may nevertheless be known - objectively set forth, publicly known" by means of other symbolic materials.Langer then defines works of art as "forms expressive of human feeling" and defines form to include "a permanent form like a building or a vase or a picture, or a transient, dynamic form like a melody or a dance, or even a form given to imagination, like the passage of purely imaginary, apparent events that constitutes a literary work." But most important, by the time she wrote the introductory essay to Philosophical Sketches, the overall plan of Mind and her reasons for undertaking the project had fallen into place. Consciousness, or subjectivity, she argues in that essay, is the proper subject matter of psychology. The difficulties of dealing with mental phenomena, however, had forced psychology to divert its attention to other things, such as overt behavior or the activity of the brain and nervous system, which were thought to be more amenable to scientific investigation. Although "the most pressing need of our day," she writes, is "to bring mental phenomena into the compass of natural fact," psychology has been unable to deal conceptually with its own essential subject matter.This, she says, require a "philosophy of mind" and these "philosophical sketches" are Langer's attempt to provide the necessary philosophical underpinning for such a comprehensive, systematic philosophical understanding of mind. Original publisher's price-clipped dust jacket with light chipping to the edges. Fine publisher's two-color cloth binding with the author's name black on the spine and the title in gilt on a red field. Former owner's stamped symbol to upper right corner of the front flyleaf. A pretty copy of this important work by Langer. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS AVAILABLE UPON REQUEST.…