H. P. Grice and Ernst Cassirer

animal symbolicum: A term used by the neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer. The tradition since Aristotle has defined a human being as animal rationale (a rational animal). However, Cassirer claimed that man’s outstanding characteristic is not in his metaphysical or physical nature, but rather in his work. Humanity cannot be known directly, but has to be known through the analysis of the symbolic universe that man has created historically. Thus man should be defined as animal symbolicum (a symbol-making or symbolizing animal). On this basis, Cassirer sought to understand human nature by exploring symbolic forms in all aspects of a human being’s experience. His work is represented in his three-volume Philosophie der Symbolischen Formen, and is summarized in his An Essay on Man. “Hence, instead of defining man as an animal rationale, we should define him as an animal symbolicum.” Cassirer, An Essay on Man.