ABSTRACT
Cassirer’s well-known emphasis on cultural and historical issues is one which invites commentators to look at his theory of symbolic forms itself in a primarily cultural and historical context. On these terms, it is easily seen as one rather sophisticated manifestation of a tendency whose time has long since gone – namely neo-Kantianism of the Marburg School. This historical reading has been reinforced by the fact that Cassirer scholarship has tended to focus either on the broad sweep of the theory as a whole1 or on its application to specific cultural fields. His basic epistemological standpoint has received less than adequate attention.2 The lack of such attentiveness means that now – at a time when ‘big’ philosophical systems are no longer fashionable – Cassirer himself is simply unfashionable. There is no established interpretative base which would allow us to see him as anything other than an old-fashioned neo-Kantian with grandiose aspirations.
