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Myth and logic: continuity and evolution or stagnation and regression. An essay in the critical analysis of two systems of thinking— In the first pages of this paper, the author gives an introduction to mythology and the many different theories on the subject. A few examples of „universal” myths are also given. A myth is a story, a narrative relating the origins in general and the origin of the group and the multiple institutions in a specific space time in particular. Moreover, the practice of myth is always embedded in ritual. In mythology, however, we encounter, mythological thinking as its cognitive aspect. This mythological thinking, thinking by means of images, emblems or symbols, can be systematized in a theoretical and even logical system. Such mythological thinking is analogus, the author argues, to Western philosophy and Western „logos”. This paper examines also the manner in which various writers, such as Lévy-Bruhl, Cassirer, Durkheim, Güsdorf, Lévi-Strauss and others, have attempted to understand mythical belief versus Western logical belief. It is a fact, in the author’s opinion, that the study of myths is of great significance for the understanding of social life in general. The following important question is asked: can the mythology - and of course mythological belief and thinking - prevalent in so-called „primitive” societies be used as a key to the understanding of the interrelationships among various other sectors of cultural life? Can the relations between mythological thinking and the rest of the culture be used to come to a better understanding of this system of thinking and our own system of so-called logical thinking? Western man, as a rule identifying reason as such with his own culture, considers his type of logical reason to be universal - and the acme of a long process of evolution -and considers „primitive” cultures as a childlike anticipation of his own thinking, or, at least, as a pathological deviation. The author concludes by acrying that there exists a qualitative difference between „mythos” and „logos”, both equally valuable but fundamentally distinct. The author analyses very summarily the conception of synthesis. Not a synthesis in a unique linear dialectic, but a synthesis of multiple divergent dialectics. Most of the scientists think „primitives” should break with their mythical past if they really desire to determine their own „modern” future. But we as „modern” Europeans still believe in some other kind of myths... The relation between mythology and Western thinking should become a symmetrical and reciprocal one and a synthesis should be reached between the assertion of particularity and of universality. Myth and science function in both the „primitive” and the Western world as complementaries and contradictories. Only by means of a specific confrontation with non-Western cultures and another method and type of thinking can we come to grip the problem of overcoming relativism.
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How to Cite: Wymeersch, P. (1984) “Mythe en rede: continuïteit en vooruitgang of stagnatie en achteruitgang: een poging tot kritische vergelijking tussen twee verschillende denksystemen”, Tijdschrift voor Sociale Wetenschappen. 29(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.21825/tvsw.94866