Language and Myth.

Herbert Spencer tried to prove the thesis that the mythico-religious veneration of natural phenomena "has its ultimate origin in nothing more than a misinterpretation of the names which men have applied to these objects" (p. 3).

For Max Muller, myth is "something conditioned and negotiated by the agency of language; it is, in fact, the product of a basic shortcoming, an inherent weakness of language" (p. 4).

These very influential views are incorrect according to Cassirer, because they are the logical result of "that naive realism which regards the reality of objects as something directly and unequivocally given, literally something tangible..." (p. 6).

For Cassirer, a more profound and accurate departure for an understanding of the nature of language and myth is the acceptance of what Kant calls his "Copernican revolution."

Instead of measuring the content, meaning, truth of intellectual forms by something extraneous which is supposed to be reproduced in them, we must find in these forms themselves the measure and criterion for their truth and intrinsic meaning. (P. 8)

From this point of view myth, art, language, and science appear as symbols in the sense of forces, each of which produces and posits a world of its own. The basic philosophical question is no longer that of their relation to an absolute reality; the central problem now is that of their mutual limitation and supplementation.

The mythical form of conception is not something super-added to certain definite elements of empirical existence; instead the primary "experience" itself is steeped in the imagery of myth and saturated with its atmosphere. (P. 10)

Language develops from the same primary experience, that is, from the encounter with an object or event which commands attention. However, the process of analysis takes place in order to simplify the "complex" mythical experiences. This process of analysis is directed by the person's interest, which is determined by the person's teleological perspective.

What appears important for our wishing and willing, our hope and anxiety, for acting and doing: that and only that receives the stamp of verbal "meaning." (P. 37)

The formation of myth and the formulation of language are at the foundation of all other symbolic forms of human expression - religious thought, metaphor, culture.

Language and Myth is more than a brief study on the origins and nature of language and myth. This small volume also offers a clear presentation of several of Cassirer's main theses supplemented by revealing examples.

ANTHONY WORRELL BROOKLYN, NEW YORK