The problem of the creation of the concept and the criticism of the classical theory of the abstraction in Ernest Cassirer’s philosophy

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the legitimacy of the transition from logic to ontology in the work of Ernest Cassirer "Substanzbegriff und Funktionsbegriff. Untersuchungen über die Grundfragen der Erkenntniskritik". After analysing some aspects of the classical theory of abstraction (mainly its Aristotelian-Lockean version, as well as Mill's inductive logic), Cassirer reveals a number of problems associated with both the use of this theory in the study of modern sciences and its application to the analysis of the phenomenon of thinking in general. For Cassirer, the classical theory of abstraction leads to paradoxes and difficulties due to the correlation between the volume and content of the concept and the process of generalisation. Cassirer solves these problems by turning to mathematics. The author demonstrates that this text by Cassirer is one of the classic examples of philosophical analysis of the foundations of logic.