Abstract

The essay's main focus will be an examination of Ernst Cassirer's theory of history. This theory is never developed systematically or comprehensively in his works, but is nevertheless discussed in many places, especially in the »Essay on Man« and in Cassirer's unpublished works. The essay is structured around three central questions: firstly, the question as to the relevance of history; secondly, if and to what extent the awareness of history stems from the perception of time; and thirdly, the question concerning the scientific character of historiography. The procedure used here will be mainly one of joining fragments together, thereby revealing a very ambivalent, yet in parts also a quite modern theory of history, which shall be examined and discussed.