Karpenko A. The concept of symbol in the West European culture at the close of the XIX - the beginning of the XX centuries (on French culture texts).

The subject of the dissertation is the concept of symbol as a carrying basis of culture. The author claims that the concept of symbol has developed from Platon's "idea" of the Beautiful as just a symbol. While developing, symbol united such characteristics as allegoric, signing, figurative, emblematical etc, that can be defined nowadays as the essence of symbol. Later on they were singled out into quite independent forms with a symbolic component in each of them. Carrying the quality of its different forms the latter has become their worth and the connecting substance over the culture semiosis. The dissertation also gives the interpretation of synaesthesis and suggestion as a means of symbol embodiment in culture and the basis of the symbolic attitude. The basic theoretical statements have been revealed through the examples of the analysis of the French literature and art sources.