CASSIRER, ERNST ), German philosopher, was born at Breslau, and educated at the universities of Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Heidelberg and Marburg. In 1919 he became a professor at Hamburg. Cassirer's chief interests lie in the history of transcendental philosophy, in the theory of scientific knowl edge and in the formation of concepts. His most important works are Descartes Kritik der math. u. naturwissenscha f tliclien Er kenntnis (1899) ; Leibniz' System (1902); Das Erkenntnisproblem in der Phil. u. Wissenschaft der neueren Zeit, 3 vols. (1906-2o) ; Kants Leben u. Lehre (1921) ; Zur Einstein'schen Relativitcits theorie (1921) ; Idee u. Gestalt. Goethe, Schiller, etc. (1921) ; Philosophie der symbolischen Formen (1923) ; and Substanzbegriff u. Funktionsbegriff (191o, Eng. trans. 1923).