从语言到符号——论卡西尔哲学中的康德-洪堡特因素

From Language to Symbols——On the Kant-Humboldt Element in Cassirer’s Philosophy

卡西尔对新康德主义传统的继承与超越问题是卡西尔研究的重要范畴,然而这一问题需要在观念史的维度上进行梳理。哈曼、赫尔德与洪堡特对康德哲学中的语言缺位问题展开了批判,强调了语言对于人类精神的重要性。其中,洪堡特的语言哲学是康德观念论原则在精神科学中的具体实现。卡西尔高度评价了洪堡特对康德先验方法的坚持与运用,并基于这一原则构建了自己的符号形式哲学体系。他从洪堡特的语言哲学中发现了对康德哲学进行扩展与超越的可能性,这促使他把先验方法运用到语言之外的其他文化形式中,进而从理性批判走向了文化批判。在上述意义上,卡西尔延续并发展了德国观念论中的康德-洪堡特传统。

The issue of Cassirer’s inheritance and transcendence of the Neo-Kantian tradition is a crucial aspect of Cassirer studies.However,this issue to be sorted out in the dimension of conceptual history.Hamann,Herder,and Humboldt criticized the absence of language in Kant’s philosophy,emphasizing the sig-nificance of language for the human spirit.Humboldt’s philosophy of language is a concrete realization of Kan-tian ideational principles in the science of spirit.Cassirer highly valued Humboldt’s adherence to and applica-tion of Kant’s transcendental method,building his own philosophy of symbolic forms based on this principle.He discovered the potential for extending and transcending Kant’s philosophy through Humboldt’s philoso-phy of language,leading him to apply the transcendental method beyond language to other cultural forms,thereby shifting from rational critique to cultural critique.In this sense,Cassirer continues and develops the Kant-Humboldt tradition within German idealism.