Philosophical foundations for a pedagogy of culture

Abstract

The general objective of this paper is to elaborate a pedagogical reading of Ernst Cassirer’sPhilosophy of Symbolic Forms, focusing on the Phenomenology of Knowledge where the author detailsthat the foundations adduced by Paul Natorp, in Introduction to Psychology constitute a critical viewof psychology as the foundation of intellectual operations. In general, there are three results to beshown: first, it will be shown that this recovery of the Natorpian vision allows Cassirer to maintainthat all cultural activity (language, mythology, art, science, etc.) has as its foundation the psychologicalactivities of the subject, which implies that all symbolic formation is both an intellectual product ofthe individual and a cultural activity. Second, it will be shown that part of the development of acritical psychology, in accordance with Natorp’s general plan, is the need for a theory of formationthat explains how the cultural environment shapes the intellectual activities of the subject, a generalthesis assumed by Cassirer for the development of his theory of the symbol. Finally, it will be notedthat the cultural formative agents considered by Natorp for the formation of the individual (state,art and religion, mainly) constitute the theoretical bases of culture on which the student will laterdevelop his theory of language, myth/religion, art and science as cultural formations.