Law as Symbolic Form: Ernst Cassirer and the Anthropocentric View of Law (Law and Philosophy Library (82))

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. 1402062559......Page 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS......Page 8 INTRODUCTION......Page 12 PART I: CASSIRER AS A PUBLIC PERSON : INTRODUCTION......Page 35 I. INTRODUCTION......Page 37 II. CONCLUSION......Page 65 I. INTRODUCTION......Page 67 II. CONCLUSION......Page 92 I. INTRODUCTION......Page 96 II. CONCLUSION......Page 141 I. INTRODUCTION......Page 143 II. CONCLUSION......Page 177 CONCLUSION TO PART I......Page 181 PART II: LAW AS SYMBOLIC FORM : INTRODUCTION......Page 186 I. INTRODUCTION......Page 188 II. CONCLUSION......Page 227 I. INTRODUCTION......Page 229 II. CONCLUSION......Page 249 I. INTRODUCTION......Page 251 II. CONCLUSION......Page 279 I. INTRODUCTION......Page 282 II. CONCLUSION......Page 301 I.INTRODUCTION......Page 304 II. CONCLUSION......Page 334 CONCLUSION TO PART II......Page 338 PRIMARY LITERATURE......Page 343 SECONDARY LITERATURE......Page 348 H......Page 382 P......Page 383 Z......Page 384 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.