At the end of the 19th century, Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) attended George Simmel’s (1858-1918) lectures on Kant in Berlin. In the following years, Cassirer pointed out two aspects of Simmel’s thought: on the one hand, he gave him credit for paving the way for his own “philosophy of symbolic forms”; on the other hand, he criticised his approach to the problem of the relationship between «life» and «form» and his conception of the «tragedy of culture». Starting from Simmel’s essay Der Begriff und die Tragödie der Kultur, this paper means to discuss the philosophical comparison between Cassirer and Simmel in order to stress the similarities between their concept of «culture» and to identify the differences in a contrasting understanding of the category of «tragedy». To Simmel’s conception of the «tragic», on which his diagnosis of modern culture is based, Cassirer opposed the concept of «drama», which is clarified by the idea of «humour» understood as the coexistence of tragedy and comedy. Through the «form» of humour it becomes possible to conceive culture in its double aspect of tragedy and freedom.

Tragedia e humor. Simmel e Cassirer sulla crisi della cultura / Trotta, FRANCESCO GIUSEPPE. - In: ANNUARIO FILOSOFICO. - ISSN 0394-1809. - 37:(2021), pp. 217-234.

Tragedia e humor. Simmel e Cassirer sulla crisi della cultura

Francesco Giuseppe Trotta
2021

Abstract

At the end of the 19th century, Ernst Cassirer (1874-1945) attended George Simmel’s (1858-1918) lectures on Kant in Berlin. In the following years, Cassirer pointed out two aspects of Simmel’s thought: on the one hand, he gave him credit for paving the way for his own “philosophy of symbolic forms”; on the other hand, he criticised his approach to the problem of the relationship between «life» and «form» and his conception of the «tragedy of culture». Starting from Simmel’s essay Der Begriff und die Tragödie der Kultur, this paper means to discuss the philosophical comparison between Cassirer and Simmel in order to stress the similarities between their concept of «culture» and to identify the differences in a contrasting understanding of the category of «tragedy». To Simmel’s conception of the «tragic», on which his diagnosis of modern culture is based, Cassirer opposed the concept of «drama», which is clarified by the idea of «humour» understood as the coexistence of tragedy and comedy. Through the «form» of humour it becomes possible to conceive culture in its double aspect of tragedy and freedom.
2021
Simmel, Cassirer, Culture, Crisis, Tragedy, Comedy, Humour
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
Tragedia e humor. Simmel e Cassirer sulla crisi della cultura / Trotta, FRANCESCO GIUSEPPE. - In: ANNUARIO FILOSOFICO. - ISSN 0394-1809. - 37:(2021), pp. 217-234.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1732604
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