Cassirer e Langer: a proposito di “Linguaggio e mito”

Abstract

The first meeting between the philosophers Susanne Katerina Langer and Ernst Cassirer occurred after the latter’s arrival in the United States, and his call to Yale University, in the early 1940s. Since then, they shared a series of common interests that go beyond the theme of the myth which links the three letters written by the German philosopher to Langer between February and April 1944 and reported above in the Italian translation. These letters help to better understand the origin of these contacts and the mutual influences which marked their respective theories. This paper aims at highlighting the main points (primarily related to the notion of symbol) around which the fruitful dialogue between Cassirer and Langer has revolved against the background of the crisis of western culture experienced in those years.