Ernst Cassirer Quotes
Ernst Cassirer was a German Jewish philosopher and the leading representative of the Marburg neo-Kantian tradition in the twentieth century. His three-volume Philosophy of Symbolic Forms generalized Kant's critical project to argue that human consciousness gives shape to the world through a plurality of symbolic forms, including language, myth, religion, art, and science. The quotes below are attributed to Ernst Cassirer, organized by topic.
Browse Ernst Cassirer by topic
Ernst Cassirer on Freedom
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Attributed to Ernst Cassirer:
“Human culture taken as a whole may be described as the process of man's progressive self-liberation.”
Ernst Cassirer on Knowledge
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Attributed to Ernst Cassirer:
“We can only know ourselves through the works we create.”
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“Love and knowledge have one and the same goal, for both strive to overcome the separation in the elements of being and return to the point of their original unity.… To know an object means to negate the distance between it and consciousness; it means, in a certain sense, to become one with the object: cognitio nihil est aliud, quam Coitio quaedam cum suo cognobili. [Knowledge is nothing else than a kind of union with what is known.]”
The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy (1927), trans. Mario Domandi (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963), p. 134 | The Latin Quote is from Franciscus Patricius , Pararchia, Lib. XV: De intellectu, Nova de universis philosophia (Ferrara, 1591), fol. 31 -
“The Latin Quote is from Franciscus Patricius , Pararchia, Lib. XV: De intellectu, Nova de universis philosophia (Ferrara, 1591), fol. 31”
Love and knowledge have one and the same goal, for both strive to overcome the separation in the elements of being and return to the point of their original unity.… To know an object means to negate the distance between it and consciousness; it means, in a certain sense, to become one with the object: cognitio nihil est aliud, quam Coitio quaedam cum suo cognobili. [Knowledge is nothing else than -
“End of Ch. 1, pp. 40–41”
No former age was ever in such a favorable position with regard to the sources of our knowledge of human nature. Psychology, ethnology, anthropology, and history have amassed an astonishingly rich and constantly increasing body of facts. Our technical instruments for observation and experimentation have been immensely improved, and our analyses have become sharper and more penetrating. We appear, -
“The facts of science always imply a theoretical, which means a symbolic, element.”
Ch. 5, p. 82 -
“Science is the last step in man's mental development and it may be regarded as the highest and most characteristic attainment of human culture.”
Opening sentence of Ch. 11, p. 161 -
“Opening sentence of Ch. 11, p. 161”
Science is the last step in man's mental development and it may be regarded as the highest and most characteristic attainment of human culture.
Ernst Cassirer on Mind
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Attributed to Ernst Cassirer:
“Language is the great symbol-making activity of the human mind.”
Ernst Cassirer on Nature
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Attributed to Ernst Cassirer:
“Man is a symbolic animal.”
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Attributed to Ernst Cassirer:
“Myth is not a passive reflection of nature, but an active form of symbolic thinking.”
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“Love and knowledge have one and the same goal, for both strive to overcome the separation in the elements of being and return to the point of their original unity.… To know an object means to negate the distance between it and consciousness; it means, in a certain sense, to become one with the object: cognitio nihil est aliud, quam Coitio quaedam cum suo cognobili. [Knowledge is nothing else than ”
The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy (1927), trans. Mario Domandi (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1963), p. 134 -
“Man is always inclined to regard the small circle in which he lives as the center of the world and to make his particular, private life the standard of the universe. But he must give up this vain pretense, this petty provincial way of thinking and judging.”
Ch. 1, p. 31