Chapter 1 - Interaction between Language and the Other Symbolic Forms

Summary

This chapter explores the ways in which language is related to the other symbolic forms in Cassirer’s philosophy of culture. Like myth, religion, art, and science, language is a distinct symbolic form, yet at the same time it always appears in the context of other human activities. This means that whenever we talk about language as a symbolic form, we are forced to think of it relationally, in and through the different aspects of language that come into focus through the perspectives of the other forms. Leib distinguishes three constitutive functions of language: its sign function, its mediation between the “I” and the world, and its ability to encapsulate a “worldview” as a totality for consciousness. On the basis of these functions, he shows how language, as a medium for expression, reorganizes itself when aligning with myth, religion, art, science, and history. Ultimately, Leib argues that myth is an immanent possibility of language that remains active even in today’s “labile equilibrium” of culture.