Ernst Cassirer

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

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 19 March 2024.]

781 Ernst Cassirer 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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