The consecrating power of symbolic forms - From Cassirer's philosophy of symbolic forms to Bourdieu's sociology of symbolic forms

According to Jacob Taubes Pierre Bourdieu is most likely the first person to bring Cassirer's Philosophy of Symbolic Forms down from the theoretical heavens to the earth of social sciences. In light of this comment this paper sets out to further examine the relationship between Bourdieu's and Cassirer's theories of culture, especially in regard to the question of literature and art. The first part follows Cassirer's crucial shift from substance to function, a shift, which he articulates in order to open Lip new access to a universal philosophy of cultural science. The second part adopts Bourdieu's sociological point of view, specifically his challenge to the claim of the objective and universal value of cultural phenomena in order to assess the effectiveness of Cassirer's projects. The third part summarizes and sheds light on what is understood to be the missing link between a philosophical and a sociological approach to the complex nature of symbolic forms: Simmel's formal sociology of culture.