Ernst Cassirer’s Philosophy of Mathematics – A Cultural Philosophy of Mathematics at the Beginning of the 20th Century.

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Gregor Nickel
• Subject Area: History of Philosophy ; Mathematics ; Theoretical Philosophy
• Term: from 2020 to 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 438932759

The project will work out an encompassing analysis of Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of mathematics taking into account his whole philosophical way from the early epistemological works up to his cultural philosophy. It combines the aims of the recent research on Cassirer emphasizing that every discussion of a special issue must not neglect the systematic ambitions of his philosophy on the one hand with the recently growing interest on Cassirer stemming from the philosophy of mathematics which discusses only specialized questions and refers only to his early epistemological works on the other. In particular, Cassirer’s archived personal papers related to mathematics will be analyzed, a structural comparison between the concepts of mathematics of Nicolas de Cusa and Cassirer will be elaborated, and the question will be answered whether and in what sense Cassirer could be called a structuralist with respect to mathematics.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants