Abstrakt: | Ernst Cassirer is nowadays thought to be one of the most distinguished representatives
of Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism created mainly by Cohen and
Natorp, in which not only the return but also going over Kant’s thought is called for.
Neo-Kantianism leaves its mark especially on the first period of Cassirer’s philosophical
activity, in which the a priori form along with the categories of mind determine
the active character of mind and thus inform Cassirer’s analytical method. His
convictions are confirmed by one-sided, rooted in Kant and Cohen, interpretation of
the gnoseology, which depicts insufficiency of human mind and thus the necessity of
not only logical structures of thinking, but also entirety of human spirit, including
its constitutive attributes — motivation, feelings and will — being involved in the
process of cognition. Hence, the range of Cassirer’s apriorism, which so far has involved
only the activity of human mind, now involves also the emotional sphere of
human agent. Inspired by Kant, Cassirer develops the symbolic forms a theory.
Hence, it is important to notice the influence of, as Andrzejewski calls it, “the methodology
of knowledge of feeling and human interests” taken from Giambattissta
Vico, Goethe, Schiller and the Johann G. Herder’s semiotic of soul. And rationalized
mathematical sciences appear to be a contribution to the reflection on Kulturwissenschaften,
which makes Cassirer one of the anti-naturalists. |