The article focuses on a group of Warburg’s fragments in order to connect his theory of the symbol to the function of memory and the role played by

imitation. Going beyond the arbitrariness of the sign, the symbol stands as a force

capable of choosing a character that can distinguish a certain multiplicity of elements and thus delineate a perimeter, an extension. Such an operation makes it

possible to progressively bring order into the chaos of perceptions and to create
clearly recognisable characters, through which one can frame and give meaning to
that which presents itself in the empirical sphere for the first time. On the other
hand, these same operations must be read as a process by which consciousness
takes shape, as if it were a kind of unconscious organisation of matter.