The Study Of Cassirer's Cultural Philosophy From The Perspective Of Historical Materialism

In the report of the 19 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China,General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that "culture is the soul of a country and a nation.Culture rejuvenates the country and culture is strong and the nation is strong." Building and developing a socialist culture with Chinese characteristics has become an important task for the times..The premise of cultural construction is to conduct in-depth research on the nature and content of culture.Therefore,the study of cultural philosophy is not only necessary but also has theoretical and practical significance.The study of cultural philosophy is an important trend of thought in the development of philosophy since the 20 th century,and the systematic elaboration of the theory of cultural philosophy was completed by the famous German philosopher Cassirer.Cassirer's cultural philosophical thoughts are rich in content,logical,and far-reaching,and have high theoretical value.Therefore,it is necessary to analyze it from the perspective of historical materialism.The emergence of Cassirer's cultural philosophy is not accidental,but has certain historical inevitability.It is based on the extensive absorption of the theoretical achievements of the predecessors,and based on the individual's research interests,the answer to the philosophical questions endowed by the times.Cassirer's cultural philosophy is centered on the concept of “symbols”.On the one hand,Cassirer regards "symbol" as an intermediary for people to understand various specific cultural forms,expands "criticism of reason" to the whole "criticism of culture",expands the scope of philosophical research,and lays the foundation for the legitimacy of the humanities.And replace the traditional "substantial thinking" with "functional thinking" to solve the problem of the opposition between the humanities and the natural sciences;on the other hand,Cassirer uses the symbols to answer the human question and treat people as " The symbolic animal,the symbol is the essential attribute of the human being,and the culture is the result of the continuous use of the symbol by the person.People,symbols and culture have inherent identity in Cassirer's cultural philosophy.People use symbols to create culture and become the inner logic of their philosophical theory.Although Cassirer's cultural philosophical theory is rich in content,complete in system,and logical in nature,its separation from human physical practice has overemphasized the spiritual work of human beings and cannot fundamentally answer the essence of culture.Certain limitations.However,the ideas of cultural integrity,creativity and pluralism advocated by Cassirer's philosophy of culture can provide some reference for the study of cultural theory,the enrichment and development of Marxist culture and the cultural construction of socialism with Chinese characteristics.