Terministic Screens and Reality

In his essay, “Terministic Screens,” Kennith Burke discusses the effect that external forces have on our knowledge and understanding.  I am pleasantly suppressed to have come to this discovery after failing to grasp the material after reading it for the first time.  My method of understanding this material on the second go around was to take my time, read with purpose and highlight important key sections.  

Kenneth Burke discusses the concept of “Scientistic” language in the second sentence of his work, his purpose for doing so was so that he could break down two important terms that are crucial for the interpretation and understanding of this text, “Naming” and “Definition.”  These two words help do describe the way in which humans see the world, there is the object, concept, idea etc. itself, and then their is its name, whatever humans decide to call it.  This theory is truly remarkable in that it is destroying the concept that humans have created anything at all, we are simply discovering and, for lack of a better word, trademarking it.  “The ultimate origins of language seem to me as mysterious as the origins of the universe itself.  One must view it, I feel, simply as the ‘given.’ But once an animal comes into being that does happen to have this particular aptitude, the various tribal idioms are unquestionably developed by their use as an instruments in the tribe’s way of living” (Burke 44).  

Digging deeper into the concept of “scientistic” theory is Burke’s idea that language builds upon other language.  This symbiotic (and intertextual) way of discovering text is what allows for the constant creation of new pieces or text, words and concepts.  These words rooted within the “scientistic” theory are then (I think, if I am understanding him correctly), according to Burke’s work, what makes up reality.  Reality is intertext and “scientistic” language. “Even if any given terminology is a reflection of reality, by its very nature as a terminology it must be a selection of reality”  (Burke 45).  It is the difference between concrete and abstract concepts that are most effected by Burke’s theory simply because of their lack of physical definability.  

This concept of “scientistic” theory really used to freak me out and seemed over my head, fortunately through (extra) close reading, I have figured out the concept that is, terministic screens.  

Works Cited

Burke, Kenneth. “Terministic Screens.” In Language as Symbolic Action: Essays on Life, Literature, and Method. Berkeley: U of California P, 1966. 44-57.