Obama's Berlin Speech Analyzed Through Langer's Symbolic Theory
This paper examines Barack Obama's July 2008 Berlin speech through the philosophical framework of Susanne Langer, focusing on her distinction between discursive and presentational symbols. Langer argued that discursive symbols carry discrete, context-independent meanings, while presentational symbols derive meaning from their broader context. The paper demonstrates how Obama's speech blurs these two symbolic modes — using concrete, seemingly factual language while embedding it within emotionally resonant, presentational framing. Through close reading of the speech, the author concludes that this rhetorical blending produces a sense of substance and inspiration without delivering practically impactful commitments, and calls for greater public awareness of such rhetorical strategies in political discourse.
- Introduction: Context and thesis on Obama's 2008 Berlin speech
- Susanne Langer and Discursive vs. Presentational Symbols: Explanation of Langer's two modes of symbolization
- The Berlin Speech: Close reading of speech's blended symbolic rhetoric
- Conclusion: Call for public rhetorical awareness in politics
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What makes this paper effective
- Applies a specific and non-obvious philosophical framework — Langer's discursive/presentational distinction — to a contemporary political text, creating genuine analytical originality.
- Uses a well-chosen textual example (the Berlin Blockade passage) to demonstrate the blurring of symbolic modes concretely, rather than asserting the claim in the abstract.
- The poetry analogy is deployed effectively as a bridging example before the primary analysis, easing readers into an unfamiliar philosophical concept.
- Maintains a critical, measured tone throughout — acknowledging the speech's rhetorical skill while arguing it ultimately produces empty meaning.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates applied philosophical criticism: taking a theoretical framework from aesthetics and philosophy of language (Langer's symbolism) and deploying it as an analytical lens on a real-world political artifact. This technique requires the writer to first explain the framework on its own terms, then map its categories onto the target text, and finally draw a normative conclusion — here, that the blending of symbolic modes in political speech produces inspiration without substance.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a framing introduction that stakes the thesis. The second section explains Langer's philosophical distinction with reference to poetry as an intermediate case. The third section performs the core textual analysis of the Berlin speech, moving from a general claim to a specific quoted example to a broader evaluative conclusion. A brief conclusion widens the argument to a civic call for rhetorical literacy. The structure is compact and well-proportioned for a short analytical essay.
Introduction
During the summer of 2008, nearing the height of the political tempest that was the most recent U.S. Presidential election, then-candidate Barack Obama gave a speech in Berlin, Germany that was tantamount to a campaign speech for the world. Given the pace of financial and political events since that time, it is hardly surprising that this speech has faded from most memories. It must also be acknowledged that there is little of real substance in Obama's words. The speech is significant, however, for what it is — a pledge by a Presidential candidate to create a world of greater peace and greater freedom, and above all to make his nation a good global citizen. This paper examines the speech using Susanne Langer's identification of discursive and presentational symbolization, showing that in reality the speech promises little while inspiring a great deal of confidence.
Susanne Langer and Discursive vs. Presentational Symbols
The first prominent female American philosopher, and one of the first prominent female philosophers generally, Susanne Langer is not often cited by philosophers today, though her work remains influential in the work of others (New World Encyclopedia). It is her distinction between discursive and presentational symbols and processes of symbolization — heavily influenced by her reading of and later intellectual correspondence with Ernst Cassirer — that is perhaps her most enduring philosophical achievement (Liukkonen).
Essentially, discursive symbols are those that carry a discrete and independent meaning, such as those used in ordinary language and in science. The words on this page, for instance, are discursive in that a discrete meaning exists for each word (Langer). Presentational symbols, however, are wholly dependent on the context in which they arise. The collective groupings of symbols that exist in a work of art — whether a painting, a piece of music, or a verse of poetry — serve as examples of presentational symbols (Langer; Brand). These different kinds of symbols also have direct implications for the process of symbolization: for creating symbols in a way meant to communicate meaning, either discursively or presentationally, and for decoding symbols as in the process of reading a passage or viewing a painting. Yet these symbols, despite their clear and seemingly insurmountable differences, are not actually entirely mutually exclusive.
The example of poetry provides an excellent illustration of this fact. Most poems — though admittedly not all — are made up of real words with discrete or semi-discrete meanings, that is, discursive symbols. Yet in many poems, these words take on significant new meanings based on their context. Though they retain the same basic discrete meaning, they acquire new meanings and shades of meaning within the context of the poem. In this way, a poem is both discursive and presentational, containing a literal meaning and a contextual meaning that must be interpreted individually and subjectively, but always within the intent of the author. This possibility in poetry clearly indicates a similar possibility in other texts.
Conclusion
Obama certainly is not the first politician to deliver a speech that was little more than empty rhetoric. By performing such rhetorical analyses, however, and by becoming generally aware of the rhetorical devices and manipulations that necessarily surround us, it is possible that we might begin to demand — and receive — better from our government officials and candidates. A new rhetoric of true substance might then emerge in the political dialogue.
Works Cited
Brand, Peg. "Susanne Katherina Knauth Langer." Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy. London, 1998.
Langer, S. (1951). Philosophy in a New Key. "Discursive Forms and Presentational Forms."
Liukkonen, Petri. "Susanne K. Langer." Accessed 29 April 2010. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/slanger.htm
New World Encyclopedia. "Susanne Langer." Accessed 29 April 2010. http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Susanne_Langer#Symbols_and_myth
Obama, Barack. "Berlin Speech." Accessed 29 April 2010. http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/24/obama.words/
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