On the category of “political myth” in the work of Ernst Cassirer

Abstract

In The Myth of the State, a work published posthumously in 1946, Ernst Cassirer analyzes the confluence between myth, technique and politics, manifesting in the National Socialist phenomenon. Starting from a recovery of theoretical concepts developed during the interwar period and under the guidance of his critical phenomenology, Cassirer faces the challenge of understanding the logic of the Nazi political myth. However, the use of the category of “political myth” by the German philosopher has been criticized by some interpreters of his work. This article aims, firstly, to reconstruct these critical arguments and, secondly, to evaluate the effective scope of this questioning, as well as the possible hermeneutic performance and relevance of Cassirer’s category of “political myth.”