Event and form

two themes in the davos-debate between Martin Heidegger and Ernst Cassirer

Oswald Schwemmer

pp. 59-73

in: Esther O. Pedersen, Steen Brock, Claus Festersen, Stig A. Pedersen (eds), The philosophy of symbolic forms and the question of human culture, Synthese 179 (1), 2011.

Abstract

The article reconsiders the Davos-debate between Martin Heidegger and Ernst Cassirer to reassess the discussion of interrelations and differences of their philosophies. The focus is the fecund motifs of thought that each philosopher presents. These are worked out by dispersing the contexts. Heidegger’s primary motifs of thought are identified through the work of Jean-Francois Lyotard as the question of finitude understood as continuance of the event and as the act of understanding the event. The primary motif of thought in Cassirer’s philosophy is identified with the question of form and formation. It is argued that it is possible to think the motifs of event and form in connection with each other. The focal point of connection between their philosophies is uncovered in the relations of form between persons—in the rigorous practice of promising and demanding. The philosophies of Heidegger and Cassirer are thus read in a way where they productively enhance each other without minimizing the differences of their motifs of thought.

Cited authors

Heidegger Martin

Cassirer Ernst

Lyotard Jean-François