The actual debate on human identity is dominated by a one-sided definition of person: It focuses on rationality, language and consciousness of time, in brief on self-consciousness. The relevance of the body is constrained to its physiological functions. Yet as lived body it is also an expression of the inner life, of feelings, emotions and mental acts. As expression of the variety of intentional acts the relation of body and mind can be defined as a symbolic relation, as Ernst Cassirer, an important representative of neo-Kantianism, argues.
