Ernst Cassirer - The Myth of The State

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.

Read more about this topic:  Ernst Cassirer

Famous quotes containing the words myth and/or state:

    By blood we live, the hot, the cold,
    To ravage and redeem the world:
    There is no bloodless myth will hold.
    Geoffrey Hill (b. 1932)

    To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment.
    Jane Austen (1775–1817)