Aspects of interpreting metaphor in E. Cassirer

In the works of E. Cassirer, two approaches to the consideration of metaphor can be observed. According to the first, metaphor appears as an integral part of language, being a necessary condition for its existence and conditioning its functioning. Within this aspect, metaphor serves as one of the main mechanisms of meaning formation, although its presence is declared as forced due to the limited semantics of language. According to the second approach, metaphor appears as "symbolic formation," the result of which is the emergence and development of the main spheres of culture-language and myth. The intensification of meaning, realized through metaphor, inevitably leads to the illumination of meanings represented as essential, and the obscuring of others. Metaphor serves as a means of expanding human cognitive and communicative abilities, the lack of mastery of which is diagnosed as pathology.