The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Volume 1: Language [Paperback]

Ernst Cassirer (Author), Ralph Manheim (Translator), Charles W. Hendel (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 10, 1965 | Series: Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Language (Book 1)

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

Product Details

• Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: Yale University Press (September 10, 1965)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0300000375
• ISBN-13: 978-0300000375
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #742,757 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The 1st Volume of Ernst Cassirer's Opus, December 3, 2003

By 

John D. Dooley "PhiloX" (Southern California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, Volume 1: Language (Paperback)

Ernst Cassirer is one of the foremost Neo-Kantian philosophers of the 20th century. This semi-easy to read book is the 1st of 4 volumes of his Opus about the Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. The 1st volume deals with language, the 2nd with Mythical Thought, the 3rd with the Phenomenology of Knowledge, & the 4th with the Metaphysics of Symbolic Forms.

As most people understand western philosophical history, Plato was the 1st to make a systematic philosophical system which made the Ideal or "Form" of thought an Axiom of reality. This way of understanding reality created more problems than answers until Descartes came up with his Rational Axiom: "I think therefore I am", which many felt was an overstatement lacking Empirical experience. Immanuel Kant solved this problem with a Synthesis (Union) of the Rational & the Empirical. In other words, the human mind functions & understands reality in a certain rational way by uniting with common experience. Immanuel Kant came up with 12 different "Categories of Thought" which was based on Aristotle's Categories from an abstraction of language. Ernst Cassirier goes a step further in stating that the mind abstracts reality by use of symbols which are taught from certain historical cultural groups & as with the philosopher Michel Foucault, both reveal the disunity of modern science's methods & terminology. Unlike Michel Focault difficult book "The Order of Things, An Archaeology of the Human Sciences", Ernst Cassirer's Philosophy of Symbolic Forms is easier to read & focuses on the main issue of the human mind's use of symbols. This book requires a certain knowledge of philosophical history & terms, & is not for a philosophy beginner. For a start on Ernst Cassirier, try his smaller, easy to read, & to the point book "Language & Myth" for a taste of this mind opening philosophy.