Cassirer's last work The Myth of the State (1946) was published posthumously. It traces the idea of a totalitarian state back to ideas promoted by thinkers such as Machiavelli and Hegel. He claimed that in the 20th century politics there was a return back, with the active encouragement of philosophers such as Martin Heidegger, to the irrationality of myth, and in particular to a belief that there is such a thing as destiny.
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Famous quotes containing the words myth and/or state:
“For the myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious.”
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955)
“till disproportion’d sin
Jarr’d against natures chime, and with harsh din
Broke the fair musick that all creatures made
To their great Lord, whose love their motion sway’d
In perfect Diapason, whilst they stood
In first obedience, and their state of good.”
—John Milton (1608–1674)