Desde Platão, os pensadores têm procurado racionalizar a política. A hegemonia de mitos políticos nos séculos XX e XXI confirma a influência do positivismo e prova que a esperança depositada pelas ciências sociais nos métodos científicos era prematura. No mundo político, "a magia ainda mantém o seu terreno". Poderá um dia a filosofia política ajudar na luta contra os mitos políticos? A filosofia não consegue destruir mitos, que são em certo sentido invulneráveis, mas, segundo Cassirer, pode ser utilizada para compreender o adversário, para que das próximas vezes não se cometa o erro de subestimá-lo nem ao poder do mito, não importa quão absurdo e irracional este seja. O autor estuda a origem, a estrutura, os métodos e a técnica dos mitos políticos baseados em conceitos de estado desenvolvidos desde os tempos primitivos, através de Platão, Dante, Maquiavel, Gobineau, Carlyle, Hegel e Malinowski. O Mito do Estado forneceu a base para o surgimento dos modernos estados totalitários. Novilínguas & duplipensares suplementam novos ritos. Novos partidos políticos suprimem a noção de liberdade e prometem alienar a responsabilidade individual em favor do coletivo - "tudo pelo social". Extrapolando a formulação do estado segundo Hegel, o culto ao herói segundo Carlyle e a teoria do racismo segundo Gobineau, o que emerge é o desdobramento de uma teoria do Estado. Cassirer observa como o pensamento ocidental se desenvolveu a partir do mito, mas não escapou inteiramente de sua influência. Não admira que Cassirer reserve a maior parte de sua ira por Hegel, possivelmente tornando sua filosofia a mais responsável pelos fundamentos intelectuais da ascensão do nacional-socialismo na Alemanha - uma análise consistente para um neokantiano como Cassirer, dada a forma como, no estimativa histórica de muitos, Hegel eclipsou Kant como filósofo preeminente da Alemanha. A característica central deste livro perspicaz é a aplicação da filosofia de formas simbólicas de Cassirer ao pensamento político do século XX. Ele consegue casar uma compreensão da cultura com uma análise dos fenômenos políticos. Leitores familiarizados com a tradição ocidental de filosofia política encontrarão seu conhecimento de fundo aqui, uma vez que a maior parte do texto gira em torno de considerar várias concepções míticas predominantes na teoria política ocidental até o Terceiro Reich de Hitler. O último capítulo, intitulado "A técnica dos mitos políticos modernos" é o mais fascinante para os leitores familiarizados com outras obras importantes de Cassirer. Aqui encontramos um defensor do Iluminismo (Aufklarung) de Kant em um mundo incerto, moldado por poderosas e incompreendidas forças da cultura. Infelizmente, Cassirer faleceu de repente antes que esta seção pudesse ser completada. Ainda assim, a nota final é retumbante. ( )

with Stan's marginal notes taken for Professor Paul L. Holmer class in modern philosopy at the University of Minnesota

The last work of a great contemporary German philosopher, 1874-1945. Survey of major texts in political theory--how the concept of the state developed from primitive times through Plato, Dante, Machiavelli, Gobineau, Carlyle, and Hegel. This concept is a Myth, and belief in this Myth provides the basis for the rise of the modern totalitarian state.
The Myth was not new. Carlyle's theory of "hero worship", and Gobineau's thesis of the diversity of races were academic. After the First World War, the nations were faced with new extremes and drew upon the old Myths in different ways. Cassirer recognized from Malinowski's description of life among the Trobriand Islanders that the role of magic and mythology in primitive society "applies equally well to highly advanced stages of man's political life". [279]
What was new in Germany in 1933 was the discovery that Myth is not merely the result of unconscious activities, but can be fabricated. [282] The first step was the change in the function of language. Cassirer points out that he is amazed to read German books that he can no longer understand--so filled with new words and new senses almost magically charged with new meanings, feelings, and violent passions, much of which were virtually untranslatable. For example, Siegfried and Siegerfriede. Sieg means 'victory' and Friede means 'peace'. The Nazis coined a distinction. The first meaning peace through German victory, whereas the latter meant peace dictated by allied conquerors, the "opposite" of peace. Used in political propaganda, one can feel in these words "the whole gamut of human emotions--of hatred, anger, fury, haughtiness, contempt, arrogance, and disdain."[284]
New words were supplemented with new rites. The totalitarian governments proceeded thoroughly, methodically, to inundate the whole life of the Volk. The group becomes the subject. Cassirer points out that modern man has not surmounted the condition of savage life when exposed to the same forces.[286] "Freedom is not a natural inheritance of man" [288], safely secured with moral education and classic ethics. The new political parties suppress the notion of freedom, and promise relief from personal responsibility.[288]
At the end of the First World War, Oswald Spengler's Der Untergang des Abendlandes (Decline of the West), claimed that the rise and fall of civilization depended upon "destiny"--he invoked magic, culture as a mystical act. It was not a scientific or even philosophical idea of "awakening". It was a rebirth of an ancient mythic motive.[290]
In 1927 Martin Heidegger published the first volume of Sein und Zeit. Curiously for a student of Husserl, Heidegger rejects the science and principles of logical thought, and does not admit something like "truth" in a realm of ideas. Man is Geworfenheit, or "being thrown" in the stream of time. Fatalism. He has no active share in culture, and becomes pliable in the hands of those who have seized power.[293]
Natural sciences were still fresh and unreliable. The first empirical astronomer was Kepler, whose post was as astrologer for the Imperial court of Prague and Wallenstein. Occult sciences were still predominant. How did natural science finally break the spell of magic? How were Bacon's idols--illusions--overcome? Bacon tried to show how the illusions of the tribe, species, and society can be cleared away with empirical science. [294] However, this had not happened in politics. The idola fori are the most dangerous and enduring. Since Plato, many thinkers have sought a rational theory of politics. The sudden rise of political myths in the 20th century shows that the hopes of Comtean social science with deductive and inductive methods used in physics were premature. In our political sphere, "magic still holds its ground". [295]
Cassirer paraphrases Bacon, stating that if we are to understand and rule the actual social world, we must first obey its laws.[295] Can political philosophy help in the struggle against political myths? Philosophy cannot destroy myths, which are in a sense invulnerable.[296] But it can be used to understand the adversary. And the next time, perhaps not making the mistake of under-estimating the power of myths, however absurd. Study the origin, the structure, the methods, and the technique of the political myths. ( )