“The Philosophy of the Enlightenment” by E. Cassirer in the Light of Cultural-Historical Epistemology

Abstract

The paper examines E. Cassirer’s principles and ideas in his “Philosophy of the Enlightenment” (1935) in order to find historical and philosophical grounds and further development of notions in social, cultural and historical epistemology. It is confirmed that the traditional abstract gnosiological approach, preserved in general as a philosophical foundation of both the full-fledged historical and philosophical analysis and modern knowledge in social sciences and the humanities, is, at the same time, insufficient. Its categorical language, being scanty and too “special”, is today in need of considerable enrichment that is coming from nonclassical epistemology.