Law As Symbolic Form: Ernst Cassirer And The Anthropocentric View Of Law Ernst Cassirer And The Anthropocentric View Of Law

Jurisprudence, according to Cassirer, is not merely the systematic, conceptual pursuance of ethics. They are separate domains for Cassirer, and both direct their claims differently on the individual. Whereas ethics concerns the motives of the individual, law ultimately achieves a cosmos for our world of outward actions. However, they are not separated by a neutral line or a vacuum. For law to have effect as a symbolic form it is necessary that it reflects the law in the mind of people i.e., that one could and ought to have assented to it out of ethical principles and maxims. The conceptual analysis of law goes hand to hand with its genetic account. Both ethics and law are products of, spring forth from the formative or symbolic powers of man, and although, as any other symbolism, they might confront us as something objective, i.e., as part of reality that is beyond our immediate reach, ultimately we must always bring them to account to their very source: our independent and individual moral judgment. In this book we describe the rule of law as the reign of persuasion rather than the reign of force, and democracy as the reign by persuasion rather than the reign by force. Front Matter....Pages i-xxxiii Front Matter....Pages 25-26 Cassirer's Public Engagement with Weimar....Pages 27-56 Cassirer And Heidegger. An Intermezzo on Magic Mountain....Pages 57-85 Cassirer In Exile An Essay On The Recovery Of Individual Moral Judgement....Pages 87-133 The Politics Of Myth. Cassirer's Pathology Of The Totalitarian State....Pages 135-172 Back Matter....Pages 173-177 Front Matter....Pages 179-180 The Philosophy Of Symbolic Forms....Pages 181-221 Cassirer's Position In Relation To Neo-Kantianism?....Pages 223-244 Law As A Symbolic Form....Pages 245-275 The Linguistic Turn Of Social Contract Theory....Pages 277-298 Cassirer's Position In Relation To Neo-Kantian Jurisprudence....Pages 299-337 Back Matter....Pages 333-337 Back Matter....Pages 339-381 I. Cassirer As A Public Person. 1. Cassirer's Public Engagement With Weimar -- 2. Cassirer And Heidegger : An Intermezzo On Magic Mountain (1929) -- 3. Cassirer In Exile : An Essay On The Recovery Of Individual Moral Judgment -- 4. The Politics Of Myth : Cassirer's Pathology Of The Totalitarian State -- Ii. Law As A Symbolic Form. 5. The Philosophy Of Symbolic Forms -- 6. Cassirer's Position In Relation To Neo-kantianism? -- 7. Law As A Symbolic Form -- 8. The Linguistic Turn Of Social Contract Theory -- 9. Cassirer's Position In Relation To Neo-kantian Jurisprudence. Deniz Coskun. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 339-378) And Index. This book describes the rule of law as the reign of persuasion rather than the reign of force, and democracy as the reign by persuasion rather than the reign by force. It synthesizes a vast amount of current Cassirer-literature and makes a contribution to jurisprudence. The book is the first systematic elaboration on law as a symbolic form and it sheds new light on a still dark area of intellectual and jurisprudential thought.