Marquette University e-Publications@Marquette Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications Philosophy, Department of 1-1-2015 Philosophical Historiography in Marburg Neo- Kantianism: The Example of Cassirer’s Erkenntnisproblem Sebastian Luft Marquette University,
[email protected] Published version. "Philosophical Historiography in Marburg Neo-Kantianism: The Example of Cassirer’s Erkenntnisproblem", in From Hegel to Windelband, Eds. Gerald Hartung and Valentin Pluder. Boston : De Gruyter, 2015: 181-205. Publisher Link. © 2015 Walter De Gruyter. Used with permission. Sebastian Luft Philosophical Historiography in Marburg Neo-Kantianism: The Example of Cassirer's Erkenntnisproblem Introduction: Philosophical Historiography as Problem-History. Windelband as Paradigm We can think that "problem-history"l is exclusively a name for one way of philo sophical historiography among others. As such it is a method that recounts the history of philosophy in terms of its problems, and not in terms of philosophical personalities or cultural epochs. In this understanding, problem-history proceeds with the naIve assumption that problems exist "in themselves", that they are merely repeated and manifested differently in different epochs. Plainly stated, this sounds both trivial and problematic. And if this reading is true then it is no wonder that problem-history is accorded little interest today, despite the fact that the classical authors of problem-history writing are still readily consulted. Apart from the fact that such writers are still being constantly exploited for re search purposes in the present, their works are granted no independent philo sophical value. This applies equally to the authors of these works: they are not considered as independent philosophers but "only" as historians.