Synthesis philosophica, Vol. 38 No. 1, 2023.
Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.21464/sp38103
Play as a Primal Phenomenon of Life and as an Aesthetic Salvation. Cassirer’s Confrontation with Klages and the Philosophy of Life – Part 2
Paul Bishop
; University of Glasgow, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, G12 8QQ, Glasgow UK
Abstract
An earlier article investigated how such philosophers as Ernst Cassirer, Ludwig Klages, and Max Scheler engaged with the thematic complex of “Spirit and Life”. In this second part we consider – over and beyond the question of the relationship between Spirit and Life – the ques tion of how Cassirer responded to Lebensphilosophie in general (and to the philosophy of Ludwig Klages in particular), not only in his essay on Scheler, but also in the third volume of the Philosophy of Symbolic Forms as well as in the Nachlass drafts of its planned fourth volume. From this investigation it becomes clear that Cassirer can be described as a knowledgeable expert on Klages, and here we systematically examine (a) his critique of Klages, (b) a possible Klagesian response to this critique, and finally (c) the important affinities, often overlooked in the critical literature, between Cassirer and Klages – particularly in relation to such topics as the symbol, play, and the role of the aesthetic.
Keywords
Ernst Cassirer; Ludwig Klages; Max Scheler; aesthetics; image; play; symbol; symbolic form
Hrčak ID:
308287
URI
Publication date:
30.9.2023.
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