symbolizing animals

Ernest Cassirer was a German philosopher and historian of ideas, often typed as one of the leading exponents of neo-Kantian thought in the 20th century. His major works include The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms (1923-29). Cassirer saw that human beings were above all a symbolizing animals. The whole range of our achievements, are unique parts of our evolutionary process and help us to understand our experience and the world.
Cassirer considered all forms of intellectual activity creative. As a symbol-creating animal, human being is the product of a new mutation in life. Science, language, art, religion, mythology , they all are man-made worlds, expressing the creativity of spirit, or mind, itself. In this capacity they help us to articulate our experience and our knowledge. Symbolic forms have great creative powers but they can also be destructive. Aware of full horrors of Nazism, Cassirer saw that whole nations could fell victims of political myths. When intellectual, ethical and artistic forces lose their strength, mythical thought start to emerge and pervade the whole of man's cultural and social life.