Die Aktualität des Mythos : Ernst Cassirers Theorie des Mythos als symbolischer Form

This essay is about the systematic clarification of the concept and theory of myth in Ernst Cassirer's Philosophy of symbolic forms. Cassirer does not understand myth either simply as one area of culture among others, or as an outdated, merely archaic stage. Rather, he characterizes it as the mother soil of culture. This metaphor needs to be taken seriously. Not only does it reflect the dissolution of boundaries in the concept of myth (in terms of “mythical consciousness”, “mythical thinking”, “mythical form of life”) – it also stands for the claim that Cassirer has never given up: Even in modern culture myth maintains topicality. [Publisher's text]