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Myth: A myth is a traditional story that embodies a belief about the world or the nature of human existence. Myths are often concerned with the origins of the universe, the creation of humanity, and the relationship between humans and the gods.
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Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments.

 
Author Concept Summary/Quotes Sources

Hans-Georg Gadamer on Myth - Dictionary of Arguments

I 278
Myth/GadamerVsRomanticism/Gadamer: In truth, the precondition is the mysterious dark, in which lies a mythical collective consciousness that precedes all thinking,
just as dogmatic-abstract as that of a state of perfection of completed enlightenment or that of absolute knowledge.
Cf. >Enlightenment/Romanticism
, >Myth/Romanticism.
Primordial wisdom is only the counter-image of the "primordial dumb". All mythical consciousness has always been knowledge, and by knowing about divine powers, it goes beyond a mere trembling before power (if one should take such for the primordial stage)
I 279
but also beyond a collective life banished to magical rituals (as we find it for example in the early Orient). It knows about itself, and in this knowledge it is no longer simply beside itself(1). This is connected with the fact that the contrast between genuine mythical thinking and pseudo-mythical poetic thinking is also a romantic illusion based on a prejudice of the Enlightenment: namely that poetic action, because it is a creation of the free imagination, no longer has any part in the religious obligation of the myth.

1) Horkheimer and Adorno seem to me to be quite right with their analysis of the "Dialectic of Enlightenment" (even if I can see a lack of historical reflection, if not a confusion of Homer with Johann Heinrich Voss in the application of sociological terms as in Odysseus, as already criticized by Goethe). (GadamerVsHorkheimer, GadamerVsAdorno.)

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Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments
The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition.

Gadamer I
Hans-Georg Gadamer
Wahrheit und Methode. Grundzüge einer philosophischen Hermeneutik 7. durchgesehene Auflage Tübingen 1960/2010

Gadamer II
H. G. Gadamer
The Relevance of the Beautiful, London 1986
German Edition:
Die Aktualität des Schönen: Kunst als Spiel, Symbol und Fest Stuttgart 1977


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