人是元符号和元解释的存在

Humans as Metasymbolic and Superinterpreting Beings

根据新的研究结果分析并批判了卡西尔将"人"定义为符号的动物的观点,这些研究不仅是在使用手语方面,而且是在使用工具、建立本土文化方面,针对野生和受训的灵长类动物所展开的。人类不能再仅仅被刻画成符号的动物,而是能够通过其向解释、认识和语言的元层次上升、超越的能力将自己与灵长类动物区别开来的动物。更确切地说,人类是元解释的动物(元符号的动物)和超越解释的动物,是最卓越的元层次的存在。

Cassirer characterized ＂man＂ （i. e. the human being） as the symbolic being （animal symbolicum）. This is analyzed and criticized according to new research with wild living and trained primates with regard to using tools and establishing local cultures as well as utilizing symbolic gestures and sign languages. The human being therefore cannot be characterized any more just as the symbolic animal. Instead, it can be demarcated from primates by its capability of ascending and transcending to higher meta-levels of interpretation, cognition and language. It is rather the meta - interpreting being （animal meta-symbolicum） and superinterpreting being （trans-and super-interpreting）. Yet, this characterization has to be integrated within a rather pluralistic （non-monolithic） practical anthropology including results of many other anthropological disciplines.