Views On Cassirer’s "the Logic Of The Cultural Sciences"

From the background of cultural philosophy, Cassirer proposed "the logic of the cultural sciences" in order to, in contrast with the natural sciences, explain the logical character of the concepts of culture and to determine the independence and validity of the cultural sciences. Based on The Logic of the Cultural Sciences, this dissertation aims at clarifying the philosophical background, the specific content and the significance of " the logic of the cultural sciences" proposed by Cassirer, by the method of critically interpreting and analyzing the text. This dissertation is divided into four parts.The first part is to clarify the relationship between The Logic of the Cultural Sciences and Cassirer’s cultural philosophy, On the basis of criticizing Neo-Kantianism, Cassirer created the philosophy of symbolic forms, and realized the cultural turn of philosophy. The Logic of the Cultural Sciences is one of the masterpieces of Cassirer in his old age and also the further development of his theory of cultural philosophy. From the object, the way of perception and the method of the cultural sciences, the second part is to illustrate the independence of cultural sciences established by Cassirer. The third part points the context that Cassirer used the "logic", which is not the principle of formal reasoning, but associated with the creative mental activities. By comparing with other concepts, Cassirer revealed the uniqueness of cultural concepts and finally through analyzing the concepts of form and style, Cassirer explained the logical character of the concepts of culture. This logic is characterized by uncertainty, in form of cognition as a whole ideal, and combines the special with the universal on the basis of the common signification. The forth part is to reveal the openness and inclusiveness of Cassirer’s views on cultural sciences and presents the discussion with the related domestic researchers on some issues. Finally a conclusion can be made and points the rationality and limitations of "the logic of the cultural sciences" proposed by Cassirer.