Symbols of Contemporary Culture

A discourse on symbol constituting the content of this book nas been presented in various cultural and temporal contexts. In particular ar-ticles we find different axionormative dimensions, where objects, ac-tions, pictures, buildings, materiał and non-material artefacts get symbolic meanings. Ali the essays addressing different cultural tradi-tions and historical backgrounds stress the immanent, everlasting feature of symbol, namely, pointing beyond itself to something that is unąuantifiable and mysterious. By this transcendent process we may get closer or even touch spaces, times, thoughts and feelings of previous generations, which makes us conscious actors and agents of the human past, present and even future. This extraordinary competence, however, cannot be practiced when one remains ignorant to symbolic phenomena. Reading these collected essays, we arę provided with a relevant generał notion that the postmodern human, depending so much on technology and science, still remains in need of symbols.