The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms: Outlines and Epistemological Perspectives

Abstract

Ernst Cassirer, when seeking to expand the critique of Kantian reason, established a critique of culture. By questioning the conditions of objectification, he envisioned science as one of the ways of accessing and capturing reality. More than that, he envisioned it as one of the forms of representation of reality, along with myth, religion, arts and language. A development that we find in his capital work The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. In this work we try to present the path taken by the philosopher, as well as some of his influences. Approaching the contours of this Philosophy and the characterization of each of the Symbolic Forms, exploring its action in the symbolic constitution, in its cultural constitution, of the world in which we live. In this line, we propose to quickly explore Cassirer’s epistemological archeology on which he relies, where space is highlighted. From this point on, we move on to understanding the Cassirerian view of space, its implications and dynamics, so that we can finally discuss the binomial Space of Action and Spatialities. From this perspective, it seems to us that there are new epistemological possibilities based on Symbolic Forms.