Cohen’sLogik der reinen Erkenntnisand Cassirer’sSubstanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff

Abstract

AbstractThis paper compares Cohen’sLogic of Pure Knowledgeand Cassirer’sSubstance and Functionin order to evaluate how in these works Cohen and Cassirer go beyond the limits established by Kantian philosophy. In hisLogic, Cohen seeks to ground in pure thought all the elements which Kant distinguishes in empirical intuition: its matter (sensation) as well as its form (time and space). In this way, Cohen tries to provide an account of knowledge without appealing to any receptivity. In accordance with Cohen’s project of reformulating the Kantian theory of sensibility, Cassirer undertakes inSubstance and Functionthe task of developing an alternative doctrine of pure and empirical manifolds. But whereas Cohen analyzes the laws of pure thought, Cassirer aims to highlight the functional character of concepts in the development of modern mathematics and physics. I will discuss these two different approaches to the problems raised by Kantian philosophy and I will argue that Cassirer went further than Cohen in the project of critical idealism.