Diss.--Evangelisch-katholische Fakultät--Universität München, 1996. / Bibliogr. p. 179-184.

Universiẗat, Habil.-Schrift, 2001--Leipzig. / Literaturverz. S. 367 - 387.

O presente trabalho põe a si como tarefa central investigar o pensamento político na obra de Ernst Cassirer, buscando depreendê-lo de seu projeto filosófico geral apresentado ao longo dos três tomos da Filosofia das formas simbólicas. Assim, as obras que são aqui analisadas com atenção especial, quais seja, O mito do Estado e Ensaio sobre o homem, são tomadas à luz desse projeto filosófico que as precede em cerca de duas décadas. A estratégia expositiva adotada nesta dissertação foi a de partir da análise diacrônica do diagnóstico do filósofo acerca do tempo histórico em que vive, buscando os reflexos de tais acontecimentos em sua produção intelectual. Assim buscamos compreender as declarações de abertura dO mito do Estado sobre a situação social e política que tornou possível a efetivação de um programa totalitário como foi o regime nazista. Em seguida, recuamos para a compreensão dos fundamentos da filosofia das formas simbólicas de Cassirer para buscar nela os elementos que, de nosso ponto de vista, teriam suscitado ao filósofo a aplicação de seu projeto filosófico geral para a compreensão de um fenômeno bastante concreto e singular como o da experiência nazista. Após essa análise dos elementos teóricos centrais do projeto filosófico cassireriano, retomamos a análise dO mito do Estado, agora em atenção aos elementos históricos que conduziram, desde o campo da teoria política até o de sua prática efetiva, ao estado de crise e irracionalidade que caracterizam a situação política da primeira metade do século XX. Nos capítulos seguintes, abordamos aquilo que, defendemos, constituiriam os ideais normativos do programa político de Cassirer, depreendidos de sua antropologia filosófica e das premissas gerais de uma noção de humanidade que se pretende inclusiva em relação a todas as manifestações do espírito humano. As duas noções fundamentais que destacamos e que constituiriam as linhas gerais desse programa político são a liberdade e o cosmopolitismo, por meio das quais procuramos ainda compreender a crítica de Cassirer ao hegelianismo e o modo com que se dá, nesse campo da filosofia política, sua releitura do projeto iluminista. / This work gives itself the task of investigating the political thought of Ernst Cassirer, intending to understand it from the point of view of his main philosophical work the three volumes of Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. In this way, the texts which we analyse here with special attention The Myth of the State and Essay on Man are taken into view in the light of this philosophical project that preceeds them in two decades. The expositive strategy adopted is to depart from the diachronic analysis of the diagnosis of Cassirer about the historical time in which he lives, seeking in his intellectual production the reflections of such events. By such manner we try to understand the opening statements in The Myth of the State about the social and political situation that turned possible the accomplishment of a totalitarian political program such as the Nazism. Then we retrace the steps of the Philosophy of Symbolic Forms looking for the fundamental elements which, in our viewpoint, serve as a cornerstone to applying his main philosophical work to a concrete and singular phenomenon such as the Nazi experience. After that we come back to analyzing The Myth of the State, now paying attention to the historical elements that lead, in the field of political theory as well as in its effective practice, to the state of crisis and irrationality that characterizes the political situation in the first half of the 20th century. During the following chapters we take into account what we defend to be the normative ideals of the cassirerian political program, inferred from his philosophical anthropology and from the general premises of a notion of humanity that claims to be inclusive in what concerns all manifestations of the human spirit. The two vital notions which we point out and that constitute the general lines of this political program are freedom and cosmopolitism, by means of which we try to understand Cassirers critic to Hegelianism and the way that follows his reception of the illuminist ideals.

Diss. Univ. Karlsruhe, 2005. / Auch im Internet unter der Adresse http://www.uvka.de/univerlag/volltexte/2007/278/ verfügbar.

O presente trabalho põe a si como tarefa central investigar o pensamento político na obra de Ernst Cassirer, buscando depreendê-lo de seu projeto filosófico geral apresentado ao longo dos três tomos da Filosofia das formas simbólicas. Assim, as obras que são aqui analisadas com atenção especial, quais seja, O mito do Estado e Ensaio sobre o homem, são tomadas à luz desse projeto filosófico que as precede em cerca de duas décadas. A estratégia expositiva adotada nesta dissertação foi a de partir da análise diacrônica do diagnóstico do filósofo acerca do tempo histórico em que vive, buscando os reflexos de tais acontecimentos em sua produção intelectual. Assim buscamos compreender as declarações de abertura dO mito do Estado sobre a situação social e política que tornou possível a efetivação de um programa totalitário como foi o regime nazista. Em seguida, recuamos para a compreensão dos fundamentos da filosofia das formas simbólicas de Cassirer para buscar nela os elementos que, de nosso ponto de vista, teriam suscitado ao filósofo a aplicação de seu projeto filosófico geral para a compreensão de um fenômeno bastante concreto e singular como o da experiência nazista. Após essa análise dos elementos teóricos centrais do projeto filosófico cassireriano, retomamos a análise dO mito do Estado, agora em atenção aos elementos históricos que conduziram, desde o campo da teoria política até o de sua prática efetiva, ao estado de crise e irracionalidade que caracterizam a situação política da primeira metade do século XX. Nos capítulos seguintes, abordamos aquilo que, defendemos, constituiriam os ideais normativos do programa político de Cassirer, depreendidos de sua antropologia filosófica e das premissas gerais de uma noção de humanidade que se pretende inclusiva em relação a todas as manifestações do espírito humano. As duas noções fundamentais que destacamos e que constituiriam as linhas gerais desse programa político são a liberdade e o cosmopolitismo, por meio das quais procuramos ainda compreender a crítica de Cassirer ao hegelianismo e o modo com que se dá, nesse campo da filosofia política, sua releitura do projeto iluminista. / This work gives itself the task of investigating the political thought of Ernst Cassirer, intending to understand it from the point of view of his main philosophical work the three volumes of Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. In this way, the texts which we analyse here with special attention The Myth of the State and Essay on Man are taken into view in the light of this philosophical project that preceeds them in two decades. The expositive strategy adopted is to depart from the diachronic analysis of the diagnosis of Cassirer about the historical time in which he lives, seeking in his intellectual production the reflections of such events. By such manner we try to understand the opening statements in The Myth of the State about the social and political situation that turned possible the accomplishment of a totalitarian political program such as the Nazism. Then we retrace the steps of the Philosophy of Symbolic Forms looking for the fundamental elements which, in our viewpoint, serve as a cornerstone to applying his main philosophical work to a concrete and singular phenomenon such as the Nazi experience. After that we come back to analyzing The Myth of the State, now paying attention to the historical elements that lead, in the field of political theory as well as in its effective practice, to the state of crisis and irrationality that characterizes the political situation in the first half of the 20th century. During the following chapters we take into account what we defend to be the normative ideals of the cassirerian political program, inferred from his philosophical anthropology and from the general premises of a notion of humanity that claims to be inclusive in what concerns all manifestations of the human spirit. The two vital notions which we point out and that constitute the general lines of this political program are freedom and cosmopolitism, by means of which we try to understand Cassirers critic to Hegelianism and the way that follows his reception of the illuminist ideals.

Zugl.: Marburg, Univ., Diss.

Zugl.: København, Univ., Diss., 2007.

The problem of a method of historical analysis played an integral part in the scholarship of Ernst Cassirer, German philosopher and historian. An Essay on Man, the work for which he is best known in the United State, includes his most lucid discussion of the tasks and aims of the historian. The historian must reconstruct the past, infusing it with the immediacy of a living expression. “Rebirth of the past” gives man a better view of his potentialities, a freedom to see beyond the demands, characteristics, and contingencies of the moment. This view of history and the historian’s task was reiterated by Cassirer in several of his works on theory and was implicit in a number of his books and articles on historical topics. The following critique will focus on Cassirer’s discussion of history and on his historical method as it was demonstrated in several of his writings. Despite the criticism of Cassirer’s penchant for structure and affinity for schemata, he has had a profound influence on the general community of historians. His work in many areas was unique and he did considerable original research. He has had some influence on subsequent historians, especially with some of the specifics of his data. Even the abundance of criticisms of his works attests to the to the seriousness with which he has been viewed as a historian.

I denna uppsats undersöker jag hur det är möjligt att med hjälp av bland annat Ernst Cassirers teorier kring myter och genom att se hur dessa tar sig i uttryck i ett narratio, nå en utökad förståelse för argumentation genom att ta fasta på det som ligger utanför logikens och det rationella förnuftets område. Med utgångspunkt i Cassirer, kompletterad av Jean-Pierre Vernant, Cornelius Castoriadis och Jesper Svenbro, visar jag hur mŷthos hela tiden är närvarande i vårt tänkande, hur mŷthos skapar och omskapar mening samtidigt som denna mening sätts i spel genom olika myter. I argumentation tar dessa myter formen av det som i den antika dispositionen för ett argumenterande tal kallades narratio. En av de viktigaste funktionerna för narrationen är att skapa trovärdighet åt ett mŷthos och detta sker på fyra olika sätt: prosans genrekarakteristiska, diakrona handlingskopplingar, anagnorisis, samt den synkrona sammanlänkningen. Den sistnämnda ger också övergången till en annan viktig aspekt av trovärdighetsskapandet; elocutio, där jag undersöker två typer av figurer och troper: överförande och förstärkande. I de överförande figurerna kan vi se hur mŷthos bricoleras av betydelser hämtade från andra fält, medan vi i de förstärkande figurerna kan se vad som skapat ett specifikt mŷthos och vilket pathos som varit viktig för mytskaparen. Uppsatsens slutsats blir därmed att människan, trots vår uppfattning om argumentation som en rationell företeelse byggd på logik, istället alltid är, med Derridas ord, mytopoetiska bricoleurer. Vi kan därmed inte bortse från myterna när vi undersöker argumentation samtidigt som vi därmed också måste lämna önskan om att värdera, rangordna och systematisera all argumentation, en tro som ur detta perspektiv bara blir till en myt. För denna argumentationssyn med grunden i retoriken blir istället Aristoteles ideal fronesis viktigt, då detta synsätt innebär förståelse, som i förlängningen ger en klokhet om vilka handlingsval som i slutändan gör gott. / In this essay I examine how we, with the help of Ernst Cassirers theories concerning myths and by examining how these are expressed in a narratio, can achieve an expanded understanding of argumentation by also taking to account that which lies beyond the area of reason and logic. By building on Cassirer, complemented with the thinking of Jean-Pierre Vernant, Cornelius Castoriadis and Jesper Svenbro, I’m able to show how mŷthos always is present in our thinking, and how mŷthos always creates and recreates meaning while at the same time putting that meaning to use in various myths. In argumentation these myths take the form of the roman concept narratio. One of the key features of the narrative is to provide credibility to mŷthos, and this is done in four ways: through the characteristics of the prosaic genre, the diachronic linking of events, anagnorisis and the synchronic linking of events. The latter also provides the transition to another of the vital parts in the process of credibility¸ elocutio, where I examine two types of figures and tropes: transferring and emphasizing. The transferring figures gives us an insight of how we create mŷthos by taking in meaning from other fields, while the emphasizing figures show us how pathos always is important to the myth-maker. The conclusions of this essay is thus that man, despite our conception of argumentation as a rational phenomenon based on reason and logic, rather is, in Derrida’s words, a mythopoetic bricoleur. We can not ignore this when we set out to investigate argumentation and we have to abandon our wish to evaluate, rank and systematize all argumentation. Instead Aristotle provides us with an answer in his rhetorical ideal fronesis, because when we reach understanding of our myth-making it’s also possible for us to make decisions that will hopefully do good.

In this thesis I explore the place of the actualized utopian American alternative community of higher learning within a philosophy of human culture. I carry out such a study in order to articulate a unifying description of movement; to find the “target” that orients the activity of actualized utopia, as opposed to a classificatory rule to define a mechanically determined utopian-object. Although these communities have varied in practice since the first generation of them were created in the mid-nineteenth century, I argue that they have played, and continue to play, a particular role in America. They imagine what a world beyond their own could look like; and through their resistance to the perceived status quo (on which they rely for their identity), they prefigure a world that could be. Although this world never comes fully into existence, the actualization (i.e., the process of becoming a dynamic symbolic product of culture) of these communities illuminates new possibilities for human life in the larger culture. While these actualized utopian communities often live long beyond their pre-figurative years, paradoxically their practices largely stay the same. A resistance to the perceived modern culture, and a vision of a world that offers more opportunities for life and dignity, has made these communities places that cultivate persons with a sense of agency. These communities create a sense of active consciousness; they create people who believe the world is changeable. An open humanistic and personalistic theodicy is what distinguishes these schools from a cult of domination, or an organization bent on a utopia that depersonalizes and dehumanizes the opportunities of others in service of a singular vision.