In Cahill's view, man is an animal of symbols, and man creates culture through various symbols, and culture is a symbol system. According to Cahill, man is not so much a rational animal as a symbolic animal. Man is an animal that creates symbols, and uses symbols to create culture. Only in the process of creating symbols can people be free and become real people.

Man is a symbolic animal, which is the most basic principle of Cassirer's symbolic formal philosophy or cultural philosophy, and also the most basic basis of Cassirer's literary semiotics or symbolic poetics. This principle reveals the essence and strength of human beings, and on this basis, it is necessary to construct the theory of literary essence and establish literary semiotics or symbolic poetics, which is to closely link the essence of literature and art with the essence of human beings, that is, to explore the essence of literature and art within the scope of humanities or cultural sciences.

Introduction to Cahill:

Ernst Cassirer (1July 28th, 874-1April 3rd, 945) formed a unique cultural philosophy by studying Marburg's neo-Kantian tradition. Born into a Jewish family in breslau. Studying literature and philosophy at Berlin University, 19 19 working as a philosophy teacher at Hamburg University.