The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms is Cassirer's most important work. This major new translation brings his magnum opus to a new generation of students and scholars. Volume 2: Mythical Thought considers the role of myth in human thought and expression.
'The three volumes of The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms focus on language, myth, and science respectively, offering fascinating, if necessarily fragmentary and speculative, accounts of how each develops in the direction of increasing freedom and universality? the basic insight of The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms is one that continues to inform the humanities today. The categories we use to understand the world aren't a passive reflection of the way things really are; rather, we actively create systems of meaning that evolve over time.' - Adam Kirsch, New York Review of Books