本文將透過對於卡西勒全集與遺著的整體性研究，首先闡釋卡西勒如何透過洪堡特的語言哲學典範，推動康德先驗哲學的符號學轉化。從而能在以「文化批判」取代「理性批判」的《符號形式哲學》構想中，建立一種能將文化科學的知識論方法學基礎，奠定在「符號功能文法學」之上的「批判的文化哲學」。其次，本文將透過卡西勒與海德格的達弗斯論辯，說明卡西勒在晚期如何透過對於生命基本現象的「知覺現象學」研究，將科學知識的實在性意義，建立在以文化作品的表達客觀性為基礎的「形上學的文化哲學」研究之上。以最終說明，卡西勒符號形式哲學的文化哲學涵義即在於，他以文化的生活形式為人類真正的自我理解敞開視域。

This article aims to provide a comprehensive outline of Ernst Cassirer’s Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. First, I will show that Cassirer transformed Kant’s transcendental philosophy into a type of semiotics under the model of Humboldt’s philosophy of language and established an epistemological basis for cultural science in his critical philosophy of culture. Second, based on the Davos Debate between Cassirer and Heidegger, I will explain how Cassirer used the basic phenomenon of life to illustrate the foundation of meaning of scientific knowledge under his research on phenomenology of perception so that his metaphysical philosophy of culture would be well explicated. Based on the above discussions, this article argues that the cultural philosophy embedded in Cassirer’s Philosophy of Symbolic Forms presents human beings’ self-understanding on the cultural life-form.