Abstract This article undertakes a cultural and symbol-theoretical analysis of bodily movement, drawing on Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. It proceeds from the premise that the structuring of our perceptual world is grounded in movements that acquire a distinct expressive quality. Such expressivity exceeds the immediacy of perceptions insofar as it is anchored in recurring affective impulses, sensations, and experiential patterns. As pre-reflective modes of articulation, these movements confer upon action a specific tonal character. Moreover, the expressive dimension of movement is mediated by social frameworks of meaning, such that identical movements may evoke divergent interpretive horizons depending on their symbolic and situational context. From an educational-theoretical standpoint, the analysis highlights how a shift in perspective can activate the reflexive potential inherent in bodily expression. This account is further developed by suggesting that movement may evoke unconscious, biographically enduring experiences. The conscious reconstruction of such experiences within the context of present perception not only grants access to one’s embodied history but also to the expressive fabric of the perceptual world.
Franz Bockrath (2026) studied this question.