Courant de conscience et philosophie de la culture: Les Principles of Psychology lus par Ernst Cassirer

After a brief general introduction to the reception of the Principles of Psychology in German-speaking countries, the essay focuses on the influence of this text on Ernst Cassirer’s philosophy of culture. In particular, it shows that the concept of stream of consciousness helped Cassirer to solve what can be called the problem of articulation: how should we describe the transition from the continuous flow of sensations to the creation of cultural forms capable of lasting over time? Answering this question means facing a problem to which James had not given a definitive answer, namely the problem of the relationship between the dynamic or transitory components of the stream of consciousness and its static components: concepts, symbols, images.