Symbolic Forms and Cultural Studies: Ernst Cassirer’s Theory of Culture

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Cassirer thought of culture anthropologically as the entire complex of human modes of meaning and existence: it encompassed science, technology, language, and social life in addition to art, religion, and philosophy. This conception of culture and Cassirer’s theory of symbolism anticipated much of later cultural theory. In this collection of essays, eminent Cassirer scholars examine the many different aspects of his thinking on this subject and demonstrate how pioneering and important it is to cultural studies. Contents Preface Introduction Abbreviations of Works by Ernst Cassirer Part One: Culture as a Philosophical Concept 1. The Variety of Symbolic Worlds and the Unity of Mind 2. Cassirer’s Concept of a Philosophy of Human Culture 3. The Modern Concept of Culture as Indicator of a Metaphysical Problem 4. Cassirer’s Symbolic Theory of Culture and the Historicization of Philosophy Part Two: Problems in the Philosophical Interpretation of Culture 5. ‘‘Art’’ and ‘‘Science’’ in The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms 6. The Subject of Culture 7. Styles of Change: Ernst Cassirer’s Philosophical Writing Part Three: Comparative Studies 8. Bakhtin and Cassirer: The Philosophical Origins of Carnival Messianism 9. From Culture to Politics: The ‘‘Aufhebung’’ of Ethics in Ernst Cassirer’s Political Philosophy in Comparison with the ‘‘Political Theology’’ of Ernst Kantorowicz 10. Speaking of Symbols: Affinities between Cassirer’s and Jung’s Theories of Language 11. ‘‘Eine zarte Differenz’’: Cassirer on Goethe on the Symbol 12. Goethe as Model for Cultural Values: Ernst Cassirer’s Essay on Thomas Mann’s Lotte in Weimar Part Four: Cassirer’s Philosophical Outlook 13. The Missing Core of Cassirer’s Philosophy: Homo Faber in Thin Air 14. The Davos Disputation and Twentieth-Century Philosophy 15. Why Did Cassirer and Heidegger Not Debate in Davos? Appendix: How the Cassirer Papers to Yale List of Contributors Index