The Problem of Knowledge Quotes

“Prior to the studies by Renan and Straus, historians thought myth was an obstacle to be removed in the search for the actual truth of history. But these new writers treated myth as a source of insight into the ways people viewed themselves and their universe. What if instead of treating myth as an illusion and a falsification, we saw it as an expression of people's deepest dreams?”
― Ernst Cassirer, The Problem of Knowledge: Philosophy, Science and History Since Hegel

“The special task of philosophy must always be to oppose the intellectual division of labour, no matter how useful and even indispensable it may be to the progress of science. Philosophy can never deny its own universal character, and if it yields to the spirit of mere facts, if it ceases to be systematic and “encyclopedic,” it will really have renounced itself.”
― Ernst Cassirer, The Problem of Knowledge: Philosophy, Science and History Since Hegel

“Not until (the) purely human goal of all science has been recognized will science be capable (...) of a rigorous systematization. We cannot succeed in this as long as we stay within the realm of purely physical phenomena. The material world is infinite in time and space, so that all knowledge of it must have a merely provisional and inconclusive character. Here research can never hope to attain the goal, for after all it remains rudimentary and preparatory. The situation does not change until we assign to research another task and select another focal point for it. The true center of knowledge lies not in the world but in mankind; not in the universe but in humanity.”
― Ernst Cassirer, The Problem of Knowledge: Philosophy, Science and History Since Hegel