Le Rousseau de Cassirer

Abstract

The way Ernst Cassirer understands Jean-Jacques Rousseau at the beginning of the 1930’s is interesting, in so far as it puts forward different mechanisms of interpretation, which Cassirer is not always conscious of. On the one hand, Cassirer claims to have a fresh and neutral interpretation of Rousseau’s works, going above divergent contemporaneous interpretations. On the other hand, his thought is actually determined by his personal philosophical formation, that is to say the neokantism of the Marburg School, and above all by the political context.

Keywords

• Cassirer
• Rousseau
• history of receptions
• rationalism
• sentiment
• Johann Nikolaus Tetens