The Influence of Gestalt Theory on Ernst Cassirer’s Phenomenology of Symbolic Forms

In the opinion of many scholars the notion of symbolic pregnancy is one of the key concepts in Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of symbolic forms. Without a proper under-standing of its conceptual frame Cassirer’s philosophy lacks a consistent foundation. The notion symbolic pregnancy offers the mechanism of distinction of symbolic forms. The newest investigations (also in unpublished or less known, neglected writings of the philosopher) has shown that the key-notion of symbolic pregnancy has its roots in Ge-stalt theory (Gestalt psychology). In this school Cassirer saw the most important exam-ple of the general tendency in scientific thought, according to which the primacy of the notion of function has to override the primacy of the notion of substance, the idea of integrated whole as well as the notion of primary elements.