Anyhow, Cassirer appeals to me as a serious student of the historical development of human psychology, and of reasoning processes. Christopher Rhoades Dÿkema
Chuck Grimes wrote:
> Oy, Chuck, it's just gossip about gossip. Are you sure you care? Here
> you go: ..... Michael Pollak
>
> This does have some interest for the history of the Frankfurt
> School. Also, I find Cassirer interesting, and wonder if other list
> participants have any thoughts about him. Christopher Dÿkema
>
> ...but apropos translation and Adorno, I've decided to take on The
> Beast, a.k.a. "Negative Dialectics". Four hundred pages, no brakes, a
> translation to mark the millenium.... Dennis Redmond
>
> -------
>
> Awesome, Michael. Thanks. You know, I never in my wildest dreams
> considered taking German, having barely passed Spanish, French, and
> Italian. I didn't know at twenty that Germany had some of the best art,
> philosophy, and intellectual history writing in the world---or that somebody
> like me would care. Thanks again. I am terrible at languages.
>
> But Dennis R., this is great news. Really, post that sucker. I have to
> admit, I got thoroughly bored with Adorno's ND and his endless
> diatribe on Heidegger. I mean I didn't like Heidegger in the first
> place---overly elaborated sour, dark, void, cold passage after
> passage.
>
> For Christopher Dykema, yes I am very interested in Cassirer and have
> gotten through a fair amount of him. I just ordered a hardback copy of
> vol 3 of The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms from alibrus. He wrote a
> very large amount of work. What makes him difficult is that he
> elaborates his own view through an analysis of other philosophers,
> which is a kind of scholarly way to go about it---but that makes it
> difficult to clearly separate out his own system of thought. I've had
> to go back and find things in Kant or Hegel in order to see where
> Cassirer is going. I am sitting here reading Carl Hamburg's essay
> on him, to refresh my memory (Conception of Philosophy, from Library of
> Living Philosophers, the Philosophy of Ernest Cassirer, Open Court, 1949)
>
> In the twenties, Cassirer and Heidegger were competing to establish a
> kind of German philosophical take on Modernity and the currents of
> early 20c thought. They had a famous debate in Davos (1929?), which I
> haven't read. When Hitler came to power, Cassirer immediately resigned
> his post in Marburg, and took the job at Oxford, mentioned in the
> translated post. He then made arrangements to have the Warburg library
> moved to England to keep it from a likely nazis destruction. The
> English art historian EH Gombrich later took it over [which
> intellectually was a damn shame. Gombrich was a friend of Popper's and
> made it his duty to erase the evil Hegelian influence from the
> archives of english art history writing---stupid twit---of course on
> the theory that art history should be objective scholarship and not
> contaminated by romantic rubbish, frump, frump, here, here--kiss my
> ass EH. What a master of writing about art with nothing to
> say.... Unfortunately, it was Gombrick and not Cassirer or Hauser who
> was used in my introductory art history courses---back when (60s). But
> I digress.]
>
> It's possible that Cassirer couldn't get Adorno a position, since
> later Cassirer was invited to Sweden and took an academic position in
> Stockholm on the condition that nobody was displaced in the
> department. So, judging from that, it might have been that Cassirer's
> position in Oxford was given him, at the expense of somebody
> else---and he felt bad about it. I don't really know of course. By
> 1941, Cassirer took the last boat from Sweden to the US and ended up
> first at Yale and later Columbia. Swedish neutrality, might have
> pissed him off, since he immigrated as a swedish citizen. He died in
> April of 1945.
>
> But Christopher D, argue something or write about Cassirer, otherwise
> I'll just go off on a rant... I think Cassirer is one of the most
> interesting and best philosophers I've ever read. Even if you are not
> that interested in him, you will learn a great deal, because he
> covers a tremendous range. He must have been a fabulous teacher.
>
> Chuck Grimes