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A discussion of the work of German philosopher Ernst Cassirer. It brings Cassirer's perspective directly into the contemporary debate over human thought and its relationship to animal life. The author places Cassirer in the context of recent philosophical thought. ... Read more

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Philosophy is deeply divided between two hostile camps: analytic philosophy (dominant in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries) and continental philosophy (dominant in Germany and France). In this volume, Friedman explores the common origin of analytic and continental philosophy, showing how social and political events intertwined and influenced philosophy during the early twentieth-century.

Friedman gives a general overview of the philosophical issues of the period, paying special attention to the relationships among three key twentieth-century philosophers: Rudolf Carnap, Ernst Cassirer, and Martin Heidegger. Already polarized by their philosophical disagreements, the approaches of Carnap and Heidegger-now practiced largely in isolation from one another-were further split apart by the rise of Naziism and the resulting emigration of all influential German-speaking philosophers except for Heidegger. While the radical directions taken by Carnap (analytic philosophy) and Heidegger (post-modernism) have been hugely influential, Friedman enters a plea on behalf of Cassirer's "middle way" as a bridge between the dead ends now reached in both analytic and continental philosophy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Technical But Accessible
This is a rather technical but accessible case study of the split between "continental" and "analytic" philosophy.Friedman focuses on 3 disparate figures; the analytic philosopher Rudolph Carnap, the seminal continental philosopher Martin Heidegger, and the the influential neo-Kantian philosopher and historian Ernst Cassirer.As Friedman demonstrates, these men had a common intellectual heritage in the Neo-Kantian revival that occurred at the end of 19th century.This heritage provided something of a common vocabulary and also resulted in the identification of common philosophic problems, notably aspects of dualities in Kants' epistemology.The specific roles of logic, mathematics, and scientific thought as forms of knowledge were also points of contention.Friedman provides a concise but detailed discussion of the Neo-Kantian background, emphasizing its diversity, with Heidegger emerging from one strand of the Neo-Kantian background, and Cassirer as he final flower of another strand.These 3 philosophers are presented as responding to the common set of problems in Neo-Kantianism in markedly different ways.Carnap pursues a reconstruction of epistemology inspired by newer developments in mathematical logic.Heidegger undertakes perhaps the most radical transformation with an effort to strike out in a new direction which appears (to me, at any rate) as a wholesale rejection of the previously crucial role of logic and scientific knowledge.Both of these thinkers drew on important new developments in philosophy; Carnap on Frege and Heidegger on Husserl's phenomenology.Friedman has a very sympathetic discussion of Cassirer's thought, which he sees as something of an effort to respond to concerns that motivated both Carnap and Heidegger, resulting in a body of thought that occupies something of middle way between Carnap and Heidegger.

Friedman, then, stresses the common heritage of "analytic" and "continental" philosophy and suggests that the split is not as great as conventionally portrayed.He suggests also that the split is partly the contingent result of the success of Nazism.Carnap, Cassirer, and most other analytically oriented philosophers had to leave Germany, eiher because of ethnicity or because of their political views.Heidegger, who later embraced Nazism, was left as the only great philosopher in Germany, and possibly in continental Europe.Friedman points out that Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger had very collegial relations prior to the Nazi seizure of power.The implication is that preservation of routine academic life in Germany would have resulted in more interaction and cross-fertilization.I'm not sure that Friedman is entirely convincing on this point.Its clear from his account that Carnap and Heidegger produced radically different and quite irreconcilable responses to what appears to have been a set of common problems.Friedman argues well for Cassirer's distinctive contribution but Cassirer's continued emphasis on the importance of science, mathematics, and logic places him much closer to Carnap in some crucial respects.It really appears that despite a common heritage, there really was a great split.

It also has to be commented that the claim of contintental philosophy to be more oriented to human concerns, as opposed to the technical preoccupations of analytic philosophy, is belied by the fact that in fundamental matters of ethics, it was people like Carnap and Cassirer who got it right.

Informative yet inaccessible
Micheal Friedan's "A Parting of the Ways: Carnap, Cassirer, and Heidegger"(2000) is a helpful overview of the early twentieth-century Neo-Kantian disputes on logical validity and phenomenological universality which, in the philosophies of Rudolf Carnap and Martin Heidegger, would famously diverge into the "analytic-continental" divide. Friedman's book aims to discuss the intellectual relationship between three broad representatives of twentieth-century Kantianism: the logical positivist Rudolf Carnap, the strict neo-kantian Ernst Cassirer, and the existential-phenomenologist Martin Heidegger. The book occasionally digresses into what may seem to be needless biographical and historical discussions, which would be more appropriate to a book of intellectual history than history of philosophy. Although this book patiently summarizes and thoroughly examines their distinctive interpretation of Kant's philosophy with prolific references to other philosophers, it nonetheless seems to ultimately present merely the relevant fragments of each writer's epistemological conception. As such, this book cannot be expected to serve as a general introduction to either logical positivism or phenomenology, while it does a more admirable service of discussing Neo-Kantianism. Friedan's book is not easily accessible, and seems intended for intermediate and advanced student-scholars of Kantian and German philosophy. Apart from the numerous post-Kantian and Neo-Kantian philosophers which are occasionally referenced, the reader must possess a working knowledge of the "transcendental aesthetic" and "transcendental analytic" from Kant's first Critique of Pure Reason, as many of the disputes concerning logic, perception and validity arise from this section of the first Critique. If the reader is unfamiliar the inner workings of Kant's epistemology, I would suggest T.K. Seung's short book, "Kant: A Guide for the Perplexed". The most informative chapter in this book is the ninth and final chapter, which summarizes the disputes within their historical context. I would recommend reading this chapter first to familiarize oneself with the topics of dispute.

A much needed contribution
The history of early 20th century philosophy is woefully little known these days, even by philosophers.Friedman provides an extremely detailed and well-documented account of the early evolutions of the views of probably the two most influential German philosophers of the century, Carnap and Heidegger.He pays attention to the connections both philosophers saw between their philosophies and both politics and everyday life, connections of which most admirers of Carnap are unaware, and connections which most admirers of Heidegger would prefer to ignore.Cassirer is of course not as influential a figure as either Carnap or Heidegger, but reconciliation projects are generally viewed as less exciting, and Friedman makes a plausible case that Cassirer's position sought to navigate a middle ground between the then rising Positivist and Existentialist movements.

Cassirer is also important to the overall picture because he is the most avowedly Kantian of the three philosophers Friedman examines, though another valuable contribution of this work is to highlight the heavy influence of the early 20th century German neo-Kantian schools on both Carnap and Heidegger (the Kantian influence on Carnap is also discussed in Friedman's book on Logical Positivism).

Friedman himself seems to hope to encourage more modern dialogue between the analytic and the continental traditions which are the heirs of Carnap and Heidegger respectively.This is of course no easy task, but while as an analytic partisan myself my response to the discussion of Heidegger's views tended to be along the lines of "so that's why the continentals have gone so horribly wrong," (not because of Friedman's presentation, I think; he presents all three philosophers he discusses quite favorably), greater mutual understanding is surely a necessary beginning, even if prospects for any kind of agreement are far off.

Changing social dynamics and ways of thought
A Parting Of The Ways: Carnap, Cassirer, And Heidegger by Michael Friedman (Ruth N. Halls Professor of Arts and Humanities, Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science, and Professor of Philosophy, Indiana University) is a informative, scholarly study in the division of philosophy into the analytic tradition (held widely in the Anglophone world), and the continental philosophic tradition of Europe. Examining how this split took place just before and during the 1930's, A Parting Of The Ways focuses upon a pivotal 1929 debate between two respected German philosophers, Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger. Rudolf Carnap, who represented the Vienna Circle of logical positivists. A Parting Of The Ways is an intrinsically fascinating study of changing social dynamics and ways of thought, and the negative impact that the rise of Hitler had on philosophy schools as a whole and German philosophers in particular. A Parting Of The Ways is an invaluable contribution to Philosophy Studies academic reference collections and supplemental reading lists. ... Read more

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The Symbolic Forms has long been considered the greatest of Cassirer's works.Into it he poured all the resources of his vast learning about language and myth, religion, art, and science-the various creative symbolizing activities and constructions through which man has expressed himself and given intelligible objective form to this experience."These three volumes alone (apart from Cassirer's other papers and books) make an outstanding contribution to epistemology and to the human power of abstraction.It is rather as if 'The Golden Bough' had been written in philosophical rather than in historical terms."-F.I.G. Rawlins, Nature ... Read more

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This provocative volume, one of the most important interpretive works on the philosophical thought of the Renaissance, has long been regarded as a classic in its field.  Ernst Cassirer here examines the changes brewing in the early stages of the Renaissance, tracing the interdependence of philosophy, language, art, and science; the newfound recognition of individual consciousness; and the great thinkers of the period—from da Vinci and Galileo to Pico della Mirandola and Giordano Bruno. The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy discusses the importance of fifteenth-century philosopher Nicholas Cusanus, the concepts of freedom and necessity, and the subject-object problem in Renaissance thought.

“This fluent translation of a scholarly and penetrating original leaves little impression of an attempt to show that a ‘spirit of the age’ or ‘spiritual essence of the time’ unifies and expresses itself in all aspects of society or culture.”—Philosophy

Customer Reviews (3)

Important
This short but rich book is a very interesting study by the great historian of philosophy Ernst Cassirer.Cassirer believed that the philosophy of a period encapsulated the essential features of that period.In the case of the Renaissance, prior scholars, including the pioneering Jacob Burkhardt, found study of philosophy less useful for understanding the Renaissance.Csssirer argues that these pioneers looked in the wrong place, suggesting that developments in theology, as opposed to philosophy per se, are crucial for understanding the mind of the Renaissance.Cassirer concentrates initially on the thought of the polymath Nicholas of Cusa (Cusanus), demonstrating that Cusanus' theology emphasized individual human capacities, an individual human relationship to God, and the importance of reason in understanding the Universe.Cassirer follows these themes through the work of a number of important thinkers, including the Florentine Platonists, Bruno, Leonardo, and Galileo.Additional themes are the importance of the revival of Platonism, as opposed to Hellenistic Neo-Platonism, the somewhat transitional role of the concepts of magic, the increasing importance of mathematics, and the series of assaults on Aristotle's system.Cassirer does particularly well in discussing the relationship between ideas of aesthetic creativity, human capacity, and emerging scientific thought.The discussions of the metaphysical underpinnings of physical science are particularly illuminating.

This is a remarkably erudite book but a bit difficult to read.The translation is fluent but Cassirer wrote at a time when scholars were assumed to know Latin and Greek.There are multiple quotations from the original Latin and Greek in the text and these are not translated.Cassirer's careful analysis and use of a vocabulary derived, I think, from German idealist philosophy, is sometimes difficult to follow.Nonetheless, this book repays re-reading.

The place to begin
This is the book for anyone curious about intellectual history, the history of ideas, Renaissance studies, etc. Despite its often-discussed excesses and omissions, it remains the most exciting book available on Renaissance philosophy for the way it comes to terms with the eccentric complexity and imaginative power of Cusanus and later Neoplatonists (whether or not Nicholas influenced Ficino, et al.).The book is densely written, but not as difficult as the previous reviewer suggests; Domandi's translation nicely captures Cassirer's sense of the drama of ideas, of the birth of subjectivity as the mind posits "its own fixed points" rather than relying on stable, objective hierarchies.True, there is little on social (or economic) contexts, but those kinds of approaches are readily found among more recent historians, and those hungering for wider contexts can look at Biechler's book on Cusanus, or Braden and Kerrigan's Idea of the Renaissance, or any of William Bouwsma's or Anthony Grafton's wonderful books on Renaissance thought.But to get inside the actual motions and metaphors of Renaissance thought, Cassirer's the place to begin, and to keep enjoying.No one does it better!

Thick reading, but mind expanding
This book is definitely not an easy read.But those who are seriously interested in philosophical history will find this book educational. Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) is most noted for his books concerning historical philosophy and his accomplishments as a professor of such Universities as Hamburg, Yale, California, and Göteborg.Next to Burckhardt, Cassirer's work is considered by many to be the landmark in the history of Renaissance thought. The Renaissance, according to Cassirer, is a time of philosophical rebirth.Medieval thinkers evaluated and understood things of this world through a transcendence that always led up to God.Renaissance thought, on the other hand, tried to understand the intelligible through sense and reason, but all the while maintaining the idea of God. Thus, the Renaissance arguably represents the first step in modern scientific thought; moreover, the innovative thinkers of the 14th and 15th centuries paved the way for the Reformation.At the beginning of the 1300's, a new life in the liberal arts begins to occur - a movement or `spiritual renewal,' as Cassirer calls it.Major scholars such as Petrarch begin to question Medieval thought and scholasticism, a philosophical principle that used the mystical and intuitional methods of Augustine and Aristotle.Cassirer uses the ideas and doctrines of the religious humanist Nicholas Cusanus as the hallmark of Renaissance philosophy. In fact, the majority of the book concentrates on Cusanus, who Cassirer considers the most influential and greatest philosopher of that epoch.The cosmos according to Cusanus places God in the center of the world, therefore allowing each individual being to have an intimate and close relationship with God.Cassirer's parable of the Tegernsee Monks and the self-portrait of Rogier van der Weyden is a perfect allegory of Cusanus' theory.Later, during the Reformation, the Catholic Church had to abandon the thoughts of Cusanus because it placed too much emphasis on the individual.He believed God created man, but also gave us the power of intellect, which has an autonomous sphere of thinking that gives everything value. The greatest accomplishment of Cusanus is his creation of balance between ancient humanism and medieval religiosity.In the "De docta ignorantia," Cusanus explains how the universe is divided between the infinite (eternal) and the finite (worldly).The connecting link or `bracket of the world' that embraces the finite and infinite is Christ.But only through the individual salvation can the unification of the cosmos occur, so the importance of man and humanity without mediators such as the church and pope is stressed.Therefore, redemption is not seen as leaving an inferior world behind like in medieval thought, but instead the salvation of one's soul is what forms the cosmos.Cassirer's book effectively proves how the Renaissance was a time of revolutionary thought as compared to medieval times.However, it seems the author may have overestimated the power and influence that Cusanus had on Renaissance philosophy.This concentration on Cusanus' religious philosophy serves as a great foreshadowing of the Reformation, but more detail should have been given to the social and intellectual aspects which Cassirer did touch on briefly in chapter four. ... Read more

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Provides a reading of Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms in the context of contemporary continental philosophy.

This systematic introduction to Ernst Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms demonstrates how his approach transforms the project of modernity in accord with the limitations of the modern conception of rationality. At the same time, this book functions as an introduction to Cassirer's thought. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Very readable
This was my first introduction to Ernst Cassirer; I knew nothing of the man before this book. If you have any interest in continental philosophy from the second half of the 20th century, a familiarity with Cassirer is a must.His fingerprints can be found on the works of folks ranging from Heidegger to Kojeve to Derrida.

Lofts' writing is accessible and clear; this book seemed to be a labour of love. "A Repetition of Modernity" provides an ample introduction to Cassirer's work, as well as re-reading him in the light of contemporary continental philosophy.

I enjoyed it enough that after finishing, I picked up two of Cassirer's own books - Myth of the State and An Essay On Man. Both were great reads, highly recommended.

A strange, but intriguing reading of Cassirer
Lofts' approach is rather strange: nevertheless, his unorthodox interpretation is very intriguing. Using the distinction between the signifier and signified, he brings out the internal and systematicstructure of Cassirer's philosophy -- which is not at all clear when youread Cassirer himself. One could dispute any one of a number of points (andespecially the methodological approach), but this is only because Lofts is,as he himself says, attempting to go "beyond Cassirer" and thusis taking a number of interpretative risks in his reading. At times onewonders, whether this is Cassirer or Lofts' philosophy of culture. However,Lofts skilfully use of quotes assures us that it is indeed Cassirer's.Given that it is one of the few books on Cassirer written in English, giventhe fact that it is compact and uses material from all of Cassirer's works(no small task as Krois points out in his Preface), and finally given thatit is an intriguing reading of Cassirer: this is certainly worth a read. ... Read more

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Symbolic Forms and Cultural Studies
Ernst Cassirer’s Theory of Culture
Edited by Cyrus Hamlin and John Michael Krois
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.
“This is the most comprehensive collection of serious scholarly studies on Cassirer’s thought since the Library of Living Philosophers released its collection over fifty years ago.
This collection rivals that one in scope and depth and has the added benefit of historical distance.”
—Randall Auxier, Southern Illinois University

Cyrus Hamlin is professor of comparative literature and German and the director of graduate studies in the department of comparative literature at Yale University. John Michael Krois teaches philosophy at the Humboldt-Unïversität zu Berlin.


... Read more