Antinomy of Culture as a Theoretical-Pragmatic Problem

Antinomy of Culture as a Theoretical-Pragmatic Problem

Gabriel Ferreira

One of the challenges faced by Cassirer's project in the Philosophy of Symbolic Forms is the problem of the antinomy of culture, namely, that each dimension or sphere of culture tends to present and represent itself not only as part of human production towards meaning but also claims universality. As evident in Cassirer's thought, the problem of autonomy is embedded at the core of the concept of culture since it must be not only an empirical and historical description of human spiritual products but also normative, insofar as a philosophically adequate conception of culture should provide a certain set of rules by which all cultural spheres should be able to articulate themselves in order to preserve the existence and certain validity of each, without mutually excluding or nullifying their particular validities. However, beyond the essentially theoretical dimension of the problem, the effects of the antinomy of culture are perceptible at the pragmatic level of real human interaction that occurs precisely through the plural articulation of these spheres. In other words, human agents decide based on the privilege granted to one cultural sphere or dimension over others. In the practical world of human actions, this means that resolving certain social or political problems involves the philosophical problem of how to exercise a meta-evaluation of the different claims of importance or relevance of certain cultural spheres in particular contexts or problems. This article aims, therefore, to elucidate the problem of the antinomy of culture as a theoretical-pragmatic problem that lies at the origin of practical problems - social, ethical, and political - as well as the meta-philosophical problem concerning the role and contribution of philosophy.