Ernst Cassirer

Roger Stephenson, Paul Bishop, Stephanie Hoelscher (University of Glasgow)

Ed. by Gerhard P. Knapp, University of Utah
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Nicole Kennedy (University of Newcastle), Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

Born 28 Jul 1874
Died 13 Apr 1945
Activity 1902-1945

Places

Born in Germany
Active in Germany; England; Sweden; United States

Activities

Primary

Philosopher

Other

Literary Critic/ Historian

Resources

Ernst Cassirer's importance today is seen as two-fold. On the one hand he is the philosopher of “symbolic form”, offering a powerful account of human life as a fundamentally cultural activity, principally in his magnum opus Philosophie der symbolischen Formen [The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, in 4 volumes, 1923, 1925, 1929, and (posthumously) 1995]. On the other, his awareness of a wider intellectual world, beyond the confines of conventional philosophy – in particular, his sensitivity to psychology and aesthetics – recommends him strongly in an age of intercultural and interdisciplinary concern. As he wrote in his Essay on Man, published in 1944 in English:

The principle of symbolism, with its universalizability, validity, and general applicability, is the magic word, the Open Sesame! giving access to the specifically human world, to the world of human...

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2069 words

Citation: Roger Stephenson, Paul Bishop, Stephanie Hoelscher. "Ernst Cassirer". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 July 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=781, accessed 15 December 2025.]