Cassirer's Invariance Concept of Aprioricity

Abstract

I analyze Cassirer's conceptions of aprioricity, especially of synthetic a priori principles in exact sciences. I discuss his 'Marburg' period, primarily his paper on Kant and modern mathematics. Cassirer defends the thesis on invariance principles as the modern variant of a priori synthetic principles. I analyze his arguments on the existence of a priori principles in science and compare his concept of aprioricity with holistic accounts of theories, the 'semantic approach to theories', and structural realism.