Segal/Myth Theorized, 1. From Nineteenth- to Twentieth-Century Theorizing

In chapter one I contrast Tylor’s quintessentially nineteenth-century of myth--that myth serves to explain events in the physical world--to Blumenberg’s equally quintessentially twentieth-century one--that myth serves to do anything but explain events in the physical world. Blumenberg attacks two kinds of theories: the rationalist one, as represented by Tylor, and the romantic one, as represented by Campbell, who himself is unnamed. Blumenberg takes an extreme view: that myth not merely no longer serves to explain the world but never did. Rather, myth has always served to alleviate anxiety about the arbitrariness of the world. Where science is about the world itself, myth, as also for Bultmann and Jonas and Camus, is about the human experience of the world. In this chapter the theories of both Tylor and Blumenberg are strongly criticized.