Symbols by Terry Olsen
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See also Symbol
You place your pencil’s point on the paper and you draw any kind of line and lift your pencil. You have made a mark.
A single mark or a small collection of marks together can become a symbol. A symbol is a mark (or small collection of marks) which is agreed to be a symbol. A mark becomes a symbol by agreement.
A symbol stands for something, it is used as a substitute for the something. For instance, a fellow wants to talk about trees, but he doesn’t want to carry around a tree. He makes a mark and he says that his mark means "tree". After gaining agreement that his mark means "tree", he can show his symbol to people at the lumber mill and they will understand he is talking about "tree".
A symbol is a mark, or a small collection of marks together, that are agreed to stand as a substitute for something. Letters on the page are substitutes for speech sounds. A stop sign is a substitute for the idea, STOP. A comma is a substitute for the idea, small pause. A number symbol, such as 3, is a substitute for the idea of a quantity of objects and that quantity is three, such as 3 cookies or 3 cakes or 3 planets. We have developed symbols to stand in place of ideas, (such as quantity), for physical energy (such as thermal units), for physical things (such as CO2 for carbon dioxide). Nearly every profession has developed symbols to facilitate communication. It is faster and easier to write a symbol than to draw or spell out the whole meaning a symbol stands for.
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Written Communication
Speech sounds are the fundamental method of communication and were used long before written language came into use. The idea that a symbol can stand in place of a speech sound is the first step toward using written language. Symbols like A and B and C, stand in place of speech sounds. Some letters combine together to make additional speech sounds, such as CH and TH and OE. Thus we have have written communication.
Numbers
Arithmetic rests on the idea that a symbol can standing in place of a quantity. The ancient Romans would look at a pile of squared off stones and count up that quantity and make a mark. The information that mark represented was combined with other information by a person who worked with marks, to build a building. But the most basic element of arithmetic is the idea that a symbol can stand as a valid substitute for physical objects. Today we use marks that are much more convenient than the Roman's.
Symbol Power
A mark does not become a symbol just because someone makes a mark. A symbol comes about by agreement among people. An individual could make a mark and decree that it stood for, say, bananas. But unless other people agreed that it stood for bananas, it would only exist as a symbol in the mind of its creator. Thus, a symbol has power to the degree that people agree it has significance. If everyone agreed the collection of characters that make up the word "FIRE", when put together into that symbol, were very powerful, then the word would have power. But the power of a symbol is only the agreed upon power of that symbol.
In times past, priests and scribes were the makers and users of symbols, while the common person was not educated in symbology. Priests and scribes were part of the ruling class so symbols they used were regarded, somewhat, with reverence and awe. Due to this lack of education symbols were commonly regarded as having power. But literacy became common, and the actual power of a symbol became more commonly understood. A symbol's power exists by agreement, without agreement a mark has no power.
