The Cassirer-Heidegger debate: A critical and historical study

This study constitutes the first systematic consideration of the connection between Ernst Cassirer and Martin Heidegger. The central event in this relationship is a debate between the two held in Davos, Switzerland in 1929. The protocol of the debate has yet to be fully translated into English and no extended study of the confrontation between these two major thinkers presently exists. In short, though acknowledged as a unique and important event in the history of philosophy, the debate has received little in the way of sustained historical and critical treatment.;This study first presents the historical context of the debate and surveys the range of interaction between Cassirer and Heidegger. It next focuses on the text of the debate and its themes--Neo-Kantianism, "life philosophy," philosophy as ontology, and freedom and fate--the question of the human being's relationship to and in the world.;Subsequent chapters trace the line of reasoning found in the Davos debate into and through other exchanges between Cassirer and Heidegger. Heidegger's criticisms of Cassirer's Mythical Thought are examined and an interpretation of Heidegger's concept of primordial understanding in terms of Cassirer's conception of mythical thought is ventured. This is followed by a comparison and contrast of key concepts from Heidegger's Being and Time and Cassirer's The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms--e.g., for Cassirer: "symbolic pregnance," "symbolic form," "expressive understanding," and for Heidegger: "discourse," "thrownness," "Dasein," "understanding," "the 'they'.";The study closes by addressing Cassirer's final "ethical" objections to Heidegger's philosophy, examining Cassirer's unpublished (until 1983) critique of Being and Time as well as scattered shorter passages critical of Heidegger in published works. Cassirer's concern is seen to be with a conception of Dasein that focuses on the thrownness and anxiety of human being. Cassirer's objection to a philosophy with the idea of fate and destiny at its center is presented, as is his conception of philosophy and philosophy's task, and his idea of "humanitas" and human self-liberation. Heidegger's statement on "humanitas," "philosophy," and "thinking" in the "Letter on Humanism" is considered for its potential to serve as a "response" to Cassirer's express concerns.