The Heidegger–Cassirer Davos Disputation
Two readings of Kant, and the 20th-century parting of ways
Venue: Davos Hochschulkurse (Davos University Conferences), Davos, Switzerland.
A philosophical convocation that came to symbolise the rupture between Marburg neo-Kantianism and existential phenomenology.
At the Davos *Hochschulkurse* in March–April 1929, the established neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer and the rising existential phenomenologist Martin Heidegger lectured and then publicly debated the meaning of Kant's critical philosophy. Cassirer presented Kant as the founder of a humanist philosophy of symbolic forms, with mathematics, science, art, myth, and language each disclosing aspects of objective spirit. Heidegger read Kant as the great precursor of fundamental ontology, with the *Critique of Pure Reason* really a treatise on finite human temporality. The disputation was carefully observed by philosophers across Europe and rapidly took on symbolic significance: the humanist tradition of Marburg neo-Kantianism vs the new "philosophy of existence"; rational continuity with the Enlightenment vs the radical questioning of its presuppositions. The political-historical context (Cassirer's emigration from Nazi Germany in 1933; Heidegger's rectorship and Nazi affiliation) gave the disputation a retrospective weight beyond its immediate intellectual content.
Historical Context
Cassirer was 54, established, courtly; Heidegger 39, austere, ascendant. Among the attendees were many of the next generation's leading philosophers (Levinas, Carnap, Hendrik Pos). The disputation has been read ever since as the symbolic moment of the analytic-continental and humanist-existentialist splits.
Parties
Kant's *Critique* is best read as a treatise on finite human temporality; the transcendental imagination is the root common to sensibility and understanding, and it discloses Dasein's thrownness in time.
Key arguments
- The first edition (A) of the Transcendental Deduction shows the transcendental imagination as the genuine root; Kant retreated from this in the second edition (B) under pressure from his rationalist heritage.
- Kant's deepest insight is the finitude of human knowledge — what Heidegger calls "thrownness" — not the construction of objective science.
- The neo-Kantian reading turns Kant into an epistemologist of the natural sciences; this neglects the more fundamental ontological question of being-in-the-world.
- Philosophy must "set humanity back into the hardness of its destiny" — not protect it within humanist cultural ideals.
Allied schools
Kant's critical philosophy is the foundation of a humanist philosophy of culture: mathematics, science, art, language, myth, and religion are symbolic forms disclosing objective spirit. The deep meaning of the *Critique* is the rational reconstruction of objective culture, not the analytic of finite Dasein.
Key arguments
- Kant's second-edition deduction is not a retreat but a clarification: objectivity of knowledge requires the categorial structure of the understanding.
- Mathematics and natural science demonstrate that human cognition reaches beyond mere finitude; the philosophy of symbolic forms maps this reach.
- The "finitude" Heidegger emphasises is a one-sided focus; humans transcend their finitude through symbolic culture.
- Philosophy's task is to articulate the unity of culture as the achievement of free rational beings, not to "set humanity back into hardness."
Allied schools
Dimensions Engaged
Observer
Observer · Knowledge Extent: is finite Dasein the proper subject of philosophy, or the rational architect of objective culture?
Time
Time · Ontological Status: is time the fundamental horizon of Dasein or a derivative form of intuition systematising objective knowledge?
Verdict in retrospect
No resolution on the day; the disputation's philosophical balance has been reassessed across the decades. Heidegger's reading dominated continental philosophy through the mid-century; Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms has been increasingly rehabilitated (Skidelsky 2008, the 2010 Davos biography of both philosophers by Gordon). The political-historical shadow over the encounter — Cassirer to exile, Heidegger to the rectorship — remains essential to its philosophical legacy.
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Further reading
- Heidegger, *Kant and the Problem of Metaphysics* (1929; tr. Taft, 1990)
- Cassirer, *The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms*, vols. 1–3 (1923–29)
- Gordon, *Continental Divide: Heidegger, Cassirer, Davos* (2010)