Ernst Cassirer - Biography

Ernst Cassirer , Ph.D., (1874-1945) was a German philosopher who tried to create a broad analysis of theoretical knowledge that included sciences and humanities. In his later work, Ernst Cassirer would turn his attention more closes the study of myth and culture. However even when focused on the study of humanities, Cassirer’s methods of analysis always possessed a near scientific rigor. He published over twenty-five books. Most of which have not been translated into English.

In 1874, Ernst Cassirer was born to an upper middle class family of Jewish extraction. Cassirer was born in Breslau, Germany, which later became Wroclaw, Poland. He graduated magna cum laude from the Breslau Gymnasium. Ernst Cassirer continued his education at the University of Berlin. Cassirer planned on studying the law; however, his academic attention quickly turned toward literature and philosophy. At the University of Leipzig, the University of Heidelberg, and the University of Munich, Ernst Cassirer studied science, languages, and history.

In 1894, Ernst Cassirer took Georg Simmel’s class on Immanuel Kant. Georg Simmel recommended that Cassirer read the writings of the neo-Kantian Hermann Cohen. In 1896, the University of Marburg admitted Ernst Cassirer for graduate work in philosophy. Cassirer worked closely with Hermann Cohen. Three years later he would complete his dissertation on the theory of knowledge of René Descartes.

The latent anti-Semitism at the time prevented Ernst Cassirer from finding steady academic work despite his work on Gottfried Leibniz published in 1902. In 1903, Ernst Cassirer returned to Berlin and began to work on an ambitious project that attempted to interpret the development of modern though starting with the Renaissance and ending with Immanuel Kant. Wilhelm Dilthey acted as Cassirer’s advocate. Through Dilthey’s actions, Cassirer was able to receive a lectureship at the University of Berlin in 1906.

In 1906, Ernst Cassirer published Das Erkenntnisproblem in der Philosophie und Wissenschaft der neueren Zeit, a work that illustrated the neo-Kantian commitment to mathematics and logic. Cassirer’s next book, Substanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff was published in 1910. In this second work, Ernst Cassirer worked toward his larger project of expressing theoretical knowledge that comprised both the humanities and science.

In 1919, Ernst Cassirer would find employment at the University of Hamburg. In I923 and 1924, Cassirer published his three volume Philosophie der Symbolischen Formen . In this work, Ernst Cassirer argued that symbolic representation is a crucial function of understanding. In this work, Cassirer also expresses the idea that reality can be divided into three categories of symbolic representation.

The first is symbolic representation as an expression of function, which corresponds to myth. In this form of representation, the experience of events is underpinned by emotional relevance. In this method of representation, there is almost no distinction between reality and appearance. The mythical world is unstable and shifts based on points of views arising from different occasions.

The second is symbolic representation as an intuition of function, which corresponds to common sense. This form of representation issues from the instability of the world of myth. However, what arises from the instability is stable. The conceptual orientation focuses on the technical use of implements and material culture. Causality, space, substance and time possess an intuitive configuration.

The third is symbolic representation as a conceptual function, which corresponds to theoretical science. The abstract realms of mathematics and physics can be expressed through this type of representation. Cassirer argued that through this last form of representation would over take the intuitive form of representation as things were seen under a relational-functional concept of a universal law. In Language and Myth, Ernst Cassirer (translated by Susanne K. Langer) restates this idea by saying,

The logical form of conception, from the standpoint of theoretical knowledge, is nothing but a preparation for the logical form of judgment; all judgment, however, aims at overcoming the illusion of singularity which adheres to every particular content of consciousness. The apparently singular fact becomes known, understood and conceptually grasped only in so far as it is “subsumed" under a general idea, recognized as a “case" of a law or as a member of a manifold or a series.

Although Philosophie der Symbolischen Formen is considered his most crucial contribution to philosophy, the work was not available in English until years after his death. In addition, the works rigorous and technical language precluded even many German speakers from delving into its depths.

At the University of Hamburg in 1928, Ernst Cassirer gave a speech in which he defended the Weimar Republic on its tenth anniversary. In 1929, Ernst Cassirer debated Martin Heidegger in Davos, Switzerland. Heidegger attacked Hermann Cohen’s neo-Kantianism while defending his concept of Dasein. Cassirer maintained the relevance of Kant through his understanding of symbolic forms. The two philosophers were at odds, but they engaged in friendly professional relations until Cassirer left Germany.

Ernst Cassirer became rector of the University of Hamburg in 1930. However, the political climate in Germany made it difficult for Cassirer to promote his work. When Hitler gained power in 1933, Ernst Cassirer resigned from his position at the University of Hamburg. Nazism shook Cassirer’s belief that people were free and rational creatures. He also began to doubt the extreme level of abstraction of his original works. Later in 1933, Cassirer would relocate to England. From this point until his death, Cassirer’s life would have a certain level of impermanence.

Ernst Cassirer lectured at Oxford University until 1935. In 1935, Cassirer would move to Sweden and take an instructional position at the University of Göteborg. At Göteborg, Cassirer would investigate the interstices of legal philosophy and morality through a study of Axel Hägerström. From Sweden, Cassirer would move to the United States in 1941. He would be a visiting professor at Columbia University from 1941 until 1944. He would teach at Yale University from 1944 until the end of his life. At Yale, Cassirer would leave an indelible mark on the American philosophers Arthur Pap and Susanne Langer.

During his time in the United States, Cassirer would compose An Essay on Man which was a narrow volume explaining the symbolic forms crucial to his philosophy. Before his death in 1945, Cassirer finished his English manuscript, The Myth of the State . In this work, he addressed some of the issues concerning symbolic forms from his earlier works. However, this analysis was tempered by a greater social and political awareness. Cassirer argued against the thinkers like Martin Heidegger, who he viewed as attempting to justify the tenants of totalitarianism. Basically, Ernst Cassirer drew connections between the politics of modern states and primitive mythical thought. Cassirer tried to illustrate how fascism came into being. Ernst Cassirer looks to previous philosophers to find locations in thought, which were conducive to the development of fascism. Cassirer argues Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel could be seen as a precursor to the architects of fascism:

…Hegel is not interested in the beauty of the state but in its “truth." And according to him this truth is not a moral one; it is rather “the truth which lies in Power." “Men are as foolish as to forget […] in their enthusiasm for liberty of conscience and political freedom, the truth which lies in power." These words written in 1801, about 150 years ago, contain the clearest and most ruthless program of fascism that has ever been propounded by any political or philosophical writer.

Ultimately, Ernst Cassirer represents the best aspects of philosophy, which involves a continuous, ongoing evaluation of one’s theories based on conversations with other thinkers and real experience.