Cassirer and Goethe: between art and nature

• Grant number: 24/22787-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: May 01, 2025
• End date: April 30, 2029
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Marco Aurélio Werle
• Grantee: Renato Costa Leandro
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Although Ernst Cassirer did not develop a major specific study on art, his philosophical reflections on the subject are numerous and scattered throughout his vast production. Of particular note in this context is the constant presence of Goethe, not only as a poet and artist, whose works are worthy of analysis, but above all as an author of philosophical dignity, whose reflections on the different spheres of knowledge - especially art and nature - seem to enliven Cassirer's production. It is in this sense that Goethe, through elements of his own thought, seems to provide Cassirer with solutions to a question posed by Kant, but not yet completely resolved within transcendental philosophy, namely the transition and integration between art and nature, whose developments are related to the fate of modern aesthetics. The research will investigate, in a strict sense, the role of Goethe in Cassirer's reflective set on aesthetics, in dialogue with his consideration of nature, and, in a broad sense, to what extent Goethe's production, elaborated through different expressive gestures, impacted the development of Cassirer's mature philosophical project, namely the philosophy of symbolic forms.