Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject Philosophy - Philosophy of the Present, grade: 1,7, University of Osnabruck, course: Philosophie, language: English, abstract: Seeing shadows like the prisoners in the cave of Plato's simile1, that's what life of man would be like if he had not the symbol. Without symbols, mans life would be confined within the limits of his biological needs and his practical interests, thus not differentiating himself from other species2. In his "Essay on Man," Ernst Cassirer examines man's efforts to understand himself and to deal with the problems of his...