The Weltbild concept according to Ernst Cassirer

The ideal background for Cassirer’s argument consists, on the one hand, of the phenomenological approach, which justifies the ‘natural’ symbolism of consciousness. It was this approach, with its gnoseological-style validity, which Cassirer, ever a fervent upholder of phenomenalism, employed in order to outline his very first indirect debate, with the views upheld by the young Heidegger, in the two-year period from 1912-1914. On the other hand, the reference background consists of the genealogical analysis of the forms of construction of the truly human dimension, or rather, the symbolic-cultural dimension; such forms are defined by Cassirer, in his later years, as being autonomous and autotelic spiritual functions, capable of producing not only specifically designated individual symbolic constructs, but also the cultural spheres, or worlds of sense which these constructs include; language, myth, art, science. The dynamic principle of autotelia characterises the function which creates the particular symbol and configures the symbolic reference sphere: this means that this function self-determines dynamically, not just once and for all, continually setting out conditions for itself and rejecting hetero-determinations. This dynamicity, although free, is also oriented towards individualisation and is mirrored, during ‘periods of grace’ in history (and not only the history of culture), by a typical and ‘model’ precipitate of history; that is to say, it is mirrored in a symbolic construct, which is of an extremely relevance due to the fact that the universal and the particular come together perfectly within it; it is an ‘oeuvre’, yet also an act, a rite, a momentous historical event , in which the specific formative function is condensed and realised. It is this ‘special’ model, prototypical and altogether inexhaustible, which is defined by Cassirer as the original symbolic phenomenon (Urphänomen); what simply is, is, with no more explanation needed.