Summary
Hans Blumenberg: Working on myth
What do we think, what moves us when we imagine the world? How — as a historical and existential quantity — do we perceive time? What meanings does myth carry with it and what does its mastery consist of? And finally: what determines the images and parables, techniques and strategies that make life bearable? Blumenberg's book The Work of Myth examines its value, starting afresh from functional aspects. In mythical narratives and parables, humanity "survives", namely, just as in easily accessible devices. The unfamiliar and uncomfortable, foreign and offensive is changed into somewhat and completely acceptable in the transposition of the myth. The philosopher's work, however, is based on making that step recognizable in its consequences. Thus Blumenberg shapes this theme with philological accuracy and with the skill of a genius exegete—unsurpassed in those parts devoted to the myth of Prometheus with an eye to Goethe.
Martin Meyer, Neue Zürcher Zeitung
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