Ernst Cassirer’s and Benedetto Croce’s theories of language in comparison
This contribution is dedicated to the comparison between the language theories of Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945) and Benedetto Croce (1866–1952). A both factually and idealistically important dialogue took place between these two idealistic philosophers of the 20th century and was expressed mainly by means of criticism. The first part of this article presents the topics as well as the concrete passages of mutual criticism suited to illustrate certain problems in the relation of Cassirer’s and Croce’s theories in general; the second part then focuses on one of these topics, which constitutes the core of their respective language-philosophical and semiotic ideas: language and its relation with art, its autonomy (as Cassirer perceives) or dependency (according to Croce). Brief final remarks recapitulate the main similarities and differences between the language theories of both philosophers that have become apparent in our comparison and emphasize the main point effectively separating them: their radically different ways of understanding idealism with respect to the relationship between spiritual activities of man and empirics.