Historical-critical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology

OUTLINE OF THE CONTENT

OUTLINE OF THE CONTENT First Book. Historical-critical Introduction to the Philosophy of Mythology Outline of the Content FIRST BOOK First Lecture: Title and object of these lectures (p. 1*). Course of development (p. 5). First method of explanation of mythology as poesy (mythology has no truth). Development and critique of this view (p. 10). Consideration of Herodotus’s passage, II, 53: out of which is established the relation of Greek mythology to poetry (p. 15). Relation of the other mythologies, namely the Indian, to poetry (p. 21). Second Lecture: The allegorical interpretation of mythology (truth is in mythology, but not in it as such): the various types of the same, the eumeritic, moral, physical (p. 26); the cosmogonial or philosophical (according to Heyne) (p. 30); the philosophical-philological (according to Hermann) (p. 34). Third Lecture: Attempt of a synthesis of the poetic view and philosophical view (parallel between the co-effectivity of poetry and philosophy in the emergence of mythology and of that in the formation of languages). Result: mythology is, in any event, an organic product (p. 47).—What is explanatory lies in a third, which is above poetry and philosophy (p. 54). Transition to the examination of the historical presuppositions of mythology (p. 55). Critique of these presuppositions in the types of explanation heretofore: 1) that *Pagination corresponds to the German original standard pagination 3 mythology was invented by individuals (p. 56); 2) from the people itself (p. 59). Primary authority against this latter, apart from the affinity of the various mythologies—that a people first emerges with its system of the gods (p. 61). Result: mythology is not an invention. Fourth Lecture: The religious explanations of mythology (truth is in mythology as such) (p. 67). Various types of this, which cannot yet count as actually religious (D. Hume’s assumption. J. H. Voss) (p. 68). Explanation that proceeds from the religious instinct, whereby either nature is used as an explanation (the deification of nature) or polytheism is derived solely from the notitia insita (p. 76). Assumption of a preceding, formal doctrine of God, disputed by Hume (p. 68). Explanation from out of the distortion of the revealed truth, a monotheism (Lessing. Cudworth. Eumeritic employment of the O.T. by G. Voss. Assumption of a primordial revelation. William Jones) (p. 83). Fr. Creuzer’s theory (p. 89). Transition to the question of the causal connection between separation of peoples (⫽ emergence into being) and polytheism. Fifth Lecture: The physical hypotheses on the emergence into being of peoples (p. 94). Connection of this problem with the question of the difference of the races (p. 97). Cause of the separation of the peoples in a spiritual crisis, proven from out of the nexus of the separation of the peoples with the emergence of language —1. Mos. 11— (p. 100). Explanation of that crisis and of the positive cause of the emergence into being of the peoples (p. 103). Means to find the dissolution into peoples, and to preserve the consciousness of unity (Pre-historical monuments. The Tower of Babel) (p. 115). Sixth Lecture: The principle of the original unity: a universal God common to humanity (p. 118). A closer investigation of this, in the course of which a transitional discussion over the difference between simultaneous and successive polytheism (p. 123). Decision over the primary question: who was that common God. Concept of relative monotheism and out of this the explanation of mythology as a process, in which peoples and languages, simultaneously with the system of the gods, emerge in lawful order (p. 126). Comparison of this result with the assumption of a preceding, pure monotheism (p. 136). Relation of relative monotheism to revelation (p. 140). Seventh Lecture: Confirmation of the foregoing through the Mosaic writings (p. 144). Meaning of the Great Flood (p. 149). The monotheism of Abraham not an absolutely unmythological one (p. 161). Eighth Lecture: Further determinations about the God of the pre-historical time in his relation to the true God (p. 175). Application to the concept of revelation (p. 179). Exposition of the relationship of the pre-historical to the 4 Outline of the Content historical time; out of which the conclusion that polytheism has no historical beginning, which agrees with David Hume’s claim (p. 181). Supra-historical process, through which relative monotheism has emerged, and the last presupposition of mythology in the (by nature) God-positing human consciousness (p. 184). Result: mythology...