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2019 | 3 | 2(8) | 51–61

Article title

The Reinforcement of Political Myth? Hans Blumenberg, Hannah Arendt and the History of the Twentieth Century

Content

Title variants

Languages of publication

EN

Abstracts

EN
It seems that the first two decades of the twenty first century demonstrate political mythology to be still functioning in the political life of the West. In this context, it is interesting to view the recent publications of Hans Blumenberg’s Nachlass: Präfiguration (“Prefiguration,” 2014) and Rigorismus der Wahrheit (“Rigorism of Truth,” 2015), as they reveal unpredicted complications for the interpretation of his philosophy of myth as well as of his political stances. They also evoke some more general questions concerning the role of myth in our contemporary political life. The aim of this article is to present the paradoxes connected with the posthumously published Blumenberg critique of Hannah Arendt and to situate it in the wider context of twentieth century political thought, specifically the work of Sorel, Schmitt, Rosenberg and Cassirer. It is also to point to more general ethical and political ambiguities connected with the problem of political mythology in the present.

Year

Volume

3

Issue

Pages

51–61

Physical description

Dates

published
2019-07-31

Contributors

  • Faculty of Education, University of Warsaw

References

  • Arendt, Hannah. “Thinking and Moral Considerations.” In Responsibility and Judgment. New York: Schocken Books, 2003.
  • Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin Books, 2006.
  • Arendt, Hannah. Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harvest Book, 1985.
  • Bajohr, Hannes. “Der Preis der Wahrheit: Hans Blumenberg über Hannah Arendts Eichmann in Jerusalem.” Merkur 69, no. 5 (2015): 52-59.
  • Berding, Helmut, ed. Mythos und Nation. Studien zur Entwicklung des Kollektiven Bewußtseins in der Neuzeit 3. Frankfurt, Suhrkanp 2016.
  • Blumenberg, Hans. “Die Heterogonie von ‘Feind’ und ‘Freund’.” In Vollzähligkeit der Sterne. Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1997.
  • Blumenberg, Hans. “The Letter to Henning Ritter, 10 February 1988.” Deutsches Literaturachiv Marbach. In Hannes Bajohr, “Der Preis der Wahrheit: Hans Blumenberg über Hannah Arendts Eichmann in Jerusalem.” Merkur 69, no. 5 (2015): 5.
  • Blumenberg, Hans. Präfiguration. Arbeit am politischen Mythos. Edited by Angus Nicholls, Felix Heidenreich. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2014.
  • Blumenberg, Hans. Rigorismus der Wahrheit. “Moses der Ägypter” und weitere Materialien zu Freud und Arendt. Edited by Ahlrich Meyer. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2015.
  • Cassirer, Ernst. The Myth of the State. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1946.
  • Elon, Amos. “The Excommunication of Hannah Arendt.” In Hannah Arendt, Eichmann in Jerusalem. A Report on the Banality of Evil. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. https://doi.org/10.1162/wopj.2007.23.4.93.
  • Girard, René. Violence and the Sacred. Translated by Patrick Gregory. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1979.
  • Meyer, Ahlrich. “Nachwort des Herausgebers.” In Hans Blumenberg, Rigorismus der Wahrheit. “Moses der Ägypter” und weitere Materialien zu Freud und Arendt. Edited by Ahlrich Meyer. Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2015.
  • Nicholls, Angus. “Hans Blumenberg on Political Myth.” Iyyun. The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly 65 (2016): 3-33.
  • Nicholls, Angus. Myth and the Human Sciences. Hans Blumenberg’s Theory of Myth. New York: Routledge 2015.
  • Rosenberg, Alfred. The Myth of the 20th Century. Accessed May 25, 2019. Archive.org.
  • Schmitt, Carl. The Crisis of Parliamentary Democracy. Translated by Ellen Kennedy. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press 2000.
  • Sorel, George. Reflections on Violence. Edited by Jeremy Jennings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Document Type

Publication order reference

YADDA identifier

bwmeta1.element.desklight-edbae03a-4599-4033-95f4-ce9abbddbb16
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