A New Visual Of Knowing Man Himself

Ernst Cassirer, the German philosopher , develops a new style of his own and makes a brilliant exposition on Man and his activities , human nature according to Cassirer , by merging Anthropology , Cultural Philosophy and the Philosophy of Symbolic Forms into an integral whole .This essay considers Cassirer's An Essay On Man as original version and makes an overall analysis in four directions of his Theory of Human Nature . Part One promulgates the source of Cassirer's Theory with the origins of methodology and ideology , emphasizing on the relationship between his Theory and The Marburg School and The Freiburg School of Neo-Kantianism , and the great influence of Dilthey's Hermeneutics and Husserl's Phenomenology on Cassirer's Theory . Part Two expounds the connotation of Cassirer's Theory, focusing on the definition of human nature, that is, Man's"work", and its features , namely , Man's response to Symbol,his symbolic concept of space and time,his possible world and his propositional language . Part Three reveals the different contents of human nature by showing the constructing of different ideal and symbolic world from each "sector"of the "circumference"of human nature , making aware in what degree Man encircles himself from mythical symbols, religious rites, language forms , artistic imaginations , historical trends and scientific laws. Part Four sets a value on Cassirer's Theory, pointing out its novelty , deficiency, essence and practical significance.Such is the basic thread of this essay.Cassirer's Theory of Human Nature offers a new angle of knowing Man himself and exerts an indelible contribution both previously and nowadays.