The title of this volume, Surrounded by Symbols, describes mankind's unique environment. The book tells how freedom in using language creates social reality. A language for civility and scholarship avoids spuma, magic, and defensive bilge. Taking a telescoping view, we study vibrations in symbolic environments between tradition and modernity, faithfulness and pragmatism, and between materialism and humanism. Taking a microscopic view, we see the descriptive, evaluative, and prescriptive language, often imbued with emotions, forming a universal minimum vocabulary of social reality.