Myth and Technology in the Philosophy of Ernst Cassirer

Abstract

In this article we will analyze the relationship between myth and technology in the philosophy of Ernst Cassirer. Taking as our point of departure the second volume of Cassirer’s Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, we will identify certain theses on the rupture introduced by technology in the world of magic and myth. Next, we will observe how Cassirer develops those theses in his essay “Form and Technology”, in order to stress the fact that technol­ogy offers man a path of emancipation from mythical immediacy and immanence. However, we will also see that the essay already offers elements that make possible to maintain the contrary position, namely, that technology tends towards a return of myth. We will see that this is the position taken by Cassirer in his last work, The Myth of the State, where he denounces the mythical use of technology by the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century. Although Cassirer extends the problem of the latency of myth unto every realm of culture, he uses technology as the primary and most eloquent example.