التاريخ كشكل رمزي لدى "إ. كاسيرر"

Abstract EN

This article is intended as an explanation of the founding idea of the neo-Kantian philosopher "Ernst Cassirer" on History as an "essentially symbolic form".

Indeed, the specific mode of understanding which marks the decisive effort of the historian and which decides the finality of all historical research is that of symbolic mediation.

This being said, the historian is not supposed to remain in the confines of the empirical method which allow him only explanations in terms of simple causalities.

On the contrary, the historian must, according to Cassirer, engage in the most complex task, namely, the "symbolic reconstruction" of the historical fact.

Indeed, the historian is not only dealing with an objective description of the facts of the past solely on the basis of archival collections, but is mainly concerned with interpretive work in order to decipher the messages of the past codified And who constantly speak to us and teach us by the richness of their symbols, for what the historian discovers in the end is a "symbolic universe" to which he is continually invited to learn and to read.