Dall’“universale concreto” all’“universale analitico” La filosofia del “primo” Cassirer tra Kant e Hegel*

This paper aims to discuss Cassirer’s early commitment to Hegelianism. The paper starts by outlining different degrees of agreement and divergence to show that Cassirer indirectly refers to Hegel’s concrete universality and true infinity in explaining his concept of function. Secondly, it addresses secondary sources from the 1910s to explain how Cassirer distanced himself from Hegel. The paper highlights the divergence by delving into the relationship between the universal and the particular and traces Cassirer’s progressive return to Kant. In particular, it shows that Cassirer deployed Kant’s concept of analytic universality to dismantle Hegel’s speculative metaphysics. Finally, the paper suggests that his refutation of Hegel’s standpoint is due to historical concerns that arose around 1916 but were not fully developed until 1920.