卡西尔的人学思想探析--以《人论》为基础

摘要

Cassirer in the“An Essay on Man”summarizes various theories about man in western history,and makes a new interpretation about this issue. Cassirer defines that man is a sign animal,and thinks that the essential characteristic of man is the labor that man use symbols to create a culture. In Cassirer's view,the various cultural forms, language,mythology,religion,art,history,science and the other,are the difference where both the man and animals,the different aspects of human nature,and the performances to the liberation of human nature. Although there are some shortcomings in the thought of Cassirer,the thought is helpful for the development of cultural philosophy.%在《人论》一书中，卡西尔在总结了西方历史上关于人的各种理论后，对“人是什么”这一问题做出了一种全新的解释。卡西尔将人定义为符号的动物，认为人的本质特性在于劳作，即人运用符号创造文化。在卡西尔看来，符号的各种形式———语言、神话、宗教、艺术、历史、科学等既是人与动物的区别所在，又彰显了人性的不同方面，而且所有形式都指向人性的解放。尽管卡西尔的人学思想有所不足，但其对人类文化哲学的发展仍有着独特的贡献。