Symbol, culture, city - Five exercises in critical philosophy of culture

The book Symbol, Culture, City: Five Exercises in Critical Philosophy of Culture brings three strands of philosophical thought together: the search for a systematic philosophy of human culture, the work of Ernst Cassirer, and the concept of the critical philosophy of culture. The first essay sketches central concerns of Cassirer's Philosophy of Symbolic Forms against the historical background of modern philosophical thought. The second essay carries on the idea of critical philosophy, which Heinz Paetzold first gave shape in his book “Die Realität der symbolischen Formen”. Critical philosophy of culture is an urgent need for the rediscovery of the cultural dimension of humans, and his essay 'Aesthetics And/As Philosophy of Culture' examines the concept from the viewpoint of aesthetics. He focuses on Hannah Arendt's work to cope with the political aspects of urban culture.