Online research in philosophy

One of the most important philosophical topics in the early twentieth century ? and a topic that was seminal in the emergence of analytic philosophy ? was the relationship between Kantian philosophy and modern geometry. This paper discusses how this question was tackled by the Neo-Kantian trained philosopher Ernst Cassirer. Surprisingly, Cassirer does not affirm the theses that contemporary philosophers often associate with Kantian philosophy of mathematics. He does not defend the necessary truth of Euclidean geometry but instead develops a kind of logicism modeled on Richard Dedekind's foundations of arithmetic. Further, because he shared with other Neo-Kantians an appreciation of the developmental and historical nature of mathematics, Cassirer developed a philosophical account of the unity and methodology of mathematics over time. With its impressive attention to the detail of contemporary mathematics and its exploration of philosophical questions to which other philosophers paid scant attention, Cassirer's philosophy of mathematics surely deserves a place among the classic works of twentieth century philosophy of mathematics. Though focused on Cassirer's philosophy of geometry, this paper also addresses both Cassirer's general philosophical orientation and his reading of Kant.

An autobiographical account of a formative experience -- Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms -- Art and science as supplementing forms -- The parting of the ways and the divide in organizational theory -- Cassirer in the light of neuroscience -- Bringing Cassirer into organizations -- The institution as a symbolic form.

Summary The paper considers Ernst' Cassirer's standpoint with reference to Euclidean geometry and the complementarity principle of quantum theory, interpreted as a choice between a causal description and a space-time description. The acceptance of the complementarity principle by Cassirer not only lands him off the Kantian path slightly, but it also leads him to some contradictions and incompatibilities within his own system of thought. 1. Accepting complementarity, Cassirer cannot still hold that there is an infinite hierarchy of objective levels as he does towards the end of hisDeterminismus; and 2. accepting complementarity, Cassirer cannot still hold on to the observability principle of Leibniz.

Following this work, Cassirer extended his insights to encompass a broad spectrum of philosophical themes: from investigations into Western epistemological and ...

It is a well-known fact that Ernst Cassirer was inspired by his colleague, the biologist Jakob von Uexküll at the university of Hamburg. This paper claims this inspiration was double—affecting both Cassirer’s philosophical anthropology and Cassirer’s epistemology of biology, but in two rather different ways. Thus, the paper intends to shed light on a corner of the history of the development of German thought of the interwar period. It may also have an actual interest because both Cassirer and Uexküll enjoy, for the time being and each in their way, a renaissance, e.g. in the recent field of biosemiotics.

On the surface, Ernst Cassirer's and Martin Heidegger's discussion in Davos (1929) can be understood as confontation between Cassirer's neo-kantian Philosophy of Culture and Heidegger's phenomenological Analysis of Existence (Daseinsanalyse). This common understanding however neglects, that both contrahents try to overcome the same problem: though in totally different ways, they try to overcome the speculative (logical and metaphysical) problem concerning the Unity of (theoretical and practical) reason, that was set by their late teacher resp. colleague Paul Natorp.

According to Michael Friedman, Ernst Cassirer’s “outstanding contribution [to Neo-Kantianism] was to articulate, for the first time, a clear and coherent conception of formal logic within the context of the Marburg School” (Friedman 2000, p. 30). In his paper “Kant und die moderne Mathematik” (1907), Cassirer argued not only that the new relational logic of Frege1 and Russell was a major breakthrough with profound philosophical implications, but also that the logicist thesis itself was a “fact” of modern mathematics. Cassirer summarizes his evaluation of Russell’s work: Here logic and mathematics have been fused into a true, henceforth indissoluble unity; and from this inner connection there arises for each ..

Biographical material.--Descriptive and critical essays on the philosophy of Ernst Cassirer.--The philosopher speaks for himself.--Bibliography of the writings of Ernst Cassirer.