The Space of Culture: Towards a Neo-Kantian Philosophy of Culture (Cohen, Natorp, and Cassirer)

273 Pages·2015·1.739 MB·English

by  Sebastian Luft

The Space of Culture

The Space of Culture
Towards a Neo-Kantian
Philosophy of Culture
(Cohen, Natorp, and Cassirer)
Sebastian Luft
1
3
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. ContendingwithCulture:The“SpaceofCulture”andItsInvestigation 1
2. Culture,“theTwoCultures,”Counter-Culture,Sub-Culture:Culture
astheProblem 5
3. TheMarburgSchoolasaTranscendentalPhilosophyofCulture:
JustificationoftheFactsofCulture 12
4. Neo-Kantianism:AForgottenTradition 16
5. TheMarburgSchoolandthePositionofCassirerwithin
theMarburgSchool 18
6. ChapterOverview 20
Part I. The Marburg School. The Basic Position:
Transcendental Philosophy as Philosophy of Culture
1. HermannCohen:TheTranscendentalMethodandPhilosophyasa
FoundationalScience(Grundlegungswissenschaft)ofCulture 25
1. Introduction 25
2. AShortPresentationofthePhilosophicalStanceofNeo-Kantianism
asPhilosophyofCulture:TheJournalLogos 29
3. HermannCohenasHeadoftheMarburgSchoolandtheOriginsof
the“MarburgMethod” 33
i. CohenasGermanJew 33
ii. CohenasfounderoftheMarburgSchoolandtheschoolcommunity 35
iii. TheoriginsofNeo-KantianismfromthespiritofPositivism:laying
outtheparadigmofNeo-Kantianism 38
iv. Cohen’sapproachtoKant:interpretationashistoryofproblems
(Problemgeschichte) 41
4. Cohen’sInterpretationofKant’sNotionofExperience 43
5. TheFactumoftheSciencesandtheTranscendentalMethod:Reality
as“ThinginItself” 48
6. CriticalPhilosophyasaPhilosophyofCultureandPhilosophyas
“FoundationalScience”:FromStatictoDynamicAPriori 58
7. Summary:TheMarburgMethodasCriticalIdealismofCulture;
ProblemswithCohen’sScientism 70
vi CONTENTS
2. PaulNatorpandtheBroadeningoftheMarburgMethod:The
ReconstructiveMethodasaWaytoaPhilosophyofSubjectivity;
TheLogicofOrigin 75
1. Introduction 75
2. Natorp’sPositionintheMarburgSchool:CriticalMinisteroftheInterior;
OverviewofHisWritings 77
i. Historyofphilosophy 79
ii. Generallogicastheoryofscience 79
iii. Psychology 82
iv. Socialidealismandsocialpedagogy 83
3. BroadeningtheMethod:Natorp’sPhilosophie:IhrProblemundihreProbleme;
FromCohen’sCriticalIdealismtoNatorp’sConceptofPhilosophyas
“ReciprocalRelation” 86
4. TakingtheSubjectiveRoute:Natorp’sSketchofaTranscendental
Psychology 92
5. Natorp’sLastPhase:GeneralLogicandMethodofOrigin;PoiesisasBasic
LawofSpirit 103
6. TheLateNatorp:Stilla(Neo-)Kantian? 111
Part II. Ernst Cassirer’s Philosophy of Symbolic Formation
as a Transcendental Philosophy of Culture
3. TheTransformationofthe“TranscendentalMethod”intoa
CritiqueofthePluralityofCulturalFormations 119
1. Introduction 119
2. ThreeUnorthodoxWaystotheSymbolic:Natorp,Warburg,Goethe 124
i. NatorpandPoiesis 124
ii. Warburgandmyth 133
iii. Goetheandprimalphenomena 143
3. TheScientificRoadtotheSymbolic:FromSubstancetoFunction 153
4. TheSymbolicForms:AMethodologicalPluralismas
Complementarism,andaBriefSurveyoftheSymbolicFormsof
Myth,Language,andKnowledge 163
i. Language 168
ii. Knowledge 172
5. TheSystemofSymbolicFormation:TheRelationoftheIndividual
LogicsandtheGeneralLogicoftheSymbolic 176
6. ThePhilosophyofSymbolicFormationasaCritiqueofCulture:
SymbolicIdealism 180
4. TheSystemofSymbolicFormationandthePhilosophyofCulture:
MetaphilosophicalDiscussions 186
1. Introduction 186
2. TheQuantity,Order,andRelationoftheSymbolicFormsandthe
TranscendentalNatureofthePhilosophyofSymbolicForms:
TheAllegedSupremacyofCognition 188
CONTENTS vii
3. SymbolicIdealismasComplementarism:WhatDoesaCritiqueof
CultureAccomplish? 208
4. TheRoleofPhilosophyintheCanonoftheSymbolicOrder 217
5. TheQuestionofEthics,PartI:Cassirer’sAnalysisofFascism;Myth
asForeveraPossibility 221
6. TheQuestionofEthics,PartII:TheLifeinCultureastheIncreaseofthe
ConsciousnessofFreedom;CassirerbetweenKantandHegel 228
Conclusion 232
1. Summary:TheMarburgSchool’sProjectofaTranscendental
PhilosophyofCultureandItsCulminationinCassirer 232
2. ThePlaceoftheIndividualinCulture:FiniteorInfinite?Cassirer
VersusHeidegger 236
3. FromtheSpaceofReasonstotheSpaceofCulture 240
Bibliography 245
Index 257

Acknowledgments
Thanksandacknowledgmentsareduetoanumberofinstitutionsandpeople.Since
institutionsaretheonesprovidingtheacademicandfinancialframeworknecessary
toanyworkinacademia,theseshallberecordedfirst.
Thefollowinginstitutions provided supportinvariousforms: theAlexander von
Humboldt Foundation (in the form of a Feodor-Lynen Fellowship) and Emory
University, who employed me as visiting assistant professor (both between 2002
and 2004). Marquette University has given me support in many ways, since 2004,
throughaSummerFacultyFellowshipandRegularResearchGrantin2005,through
afull-yearsabbatical(2009–10)andtheHelenWayKlinglerEndowment(2011–14).
Iwasable,asavisitor,toexpressanddiscussmyideaswithcolleaguesandstudents
attheUniversitiesofGraz,PuertoRico(RíoPiedras),Freiburgi.Br.,andWürzburg.
I thank all of these institutions, including the people who worked to make my
presencetherepossible,fortheirfinancialandmoralsupport.
I would like to thank colleagues, but especially my students, both at Marquette
University as well as at the various institutions mentioned above, for critical and
penetratingquestionsandforneverlettingmeoffthehookeasily.
The writings of, and in many cases, discussions with the following scholars have
particularlyhelpedmeshapemyideasandhaveinspiredmeinmorewaysthanIcan
acknowledge (in alphabetical order): Frederick Beiser, Steven Crowell, Massimo
Ferrari, Michael Friedman, Gottfried Gabriel, Carl-Friedrich Gethmann, Helmut
Holzhey,GuidoKreis,Karl-HeinzLembeck,RudolfMakkreel,KarlMertens,Christian
Möckel,ErnstWolfgangOrth,andJürgenStolzenberg.
I thank the three anonymous reviewers at Oxford University Press for their
extremely helpful reports. I have attempted to do justice to their concerns and to
implementmostoftheirsuggestions.IthankPeterMomtchiloffforhispatienceand
his encouragement to rework my initial submission. I also thank Dana Fritz and
Clark Wolf, both graduate students at Marquette University, for their help with
grammarandmystyleofwriting,andthankstootomycopy-editoratOUP,Edwin
Pritchard.
I thank the members of my family for their unfailing love and support. Special
thanksgotomywife,StephanieLuft,forhercriticalinquiriesintomyworkandthe
manysympatheticdiscussionsaboutcultureanditsphilosophy.