Abstract

The author sets out to explore the implications of the concept of "expression" with the intent of extricating it from its dependency on an external world which negates it as the "radical originality and irreducible internality of the mind" that it is. To be expressive is to "do something," and this calls for a spontaneity and creativity that emanate from a unique and autonomous self. This thesis is prefaced by an analysis into the varieties of expression found in works of art, history, philosophy, science, and anything else using language as an expression of subjective factors that include not only external natural signs but emotions, attitudes, and states of mind. Any expression is ultimately an expression of the self as agent, and this affords Sircello an opportunity to provide us with some original reflections on causation in expression. "What do we mean when we think of expressions as causal?" The answer is developed in terms of an analogy with the Platonic Forms as participated universals causing their instantiations in particulars. The characteristic F of x’s is a particular in respect of a universal F, but the expression G is a particular in relation to x’s F. Because F is always x’s F, F unlike the Platonic Form enjoys no absolutely universal disembodied existence, and G is possible only because F is x’s F. Self expression as an activity by which the self discovers itself cannot be thought apart from the possibilities that the varieties of work afford.