Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Andrews
Scots Philosophical Association
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THE
PHILOSOPHICAL
QUARTERLY
VOL. 6. No. 22 JANUARY 1956
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2 PETER MUNZ
fundamentally from su
'unless babies are weane
mother fixation'.
A myth, however, differs qualitatively from a historical account,
that it is vague in its specifications of time and space. This is not necessari
so, for there are many myths that are by no means vague. But such specif
cation is rarely an essential part of the myths; and often the point of
story related depends upon the vagueness of such specifications.
The two phenomena I have in mind when I am speaking of the mut
interdependence of myth and history, conceived as concrete stories,
the distension of myth into history and the telescoping of history i
myth. The first process can be described as 'true myth issuing in significan
history'; and the second as 'true history issuing in significant my
These statements must appear, at the moment, somewhat cryptic. Bu
will endeavour to unravel them presently.
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HISTORY AND MYTH 3
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4 PETER MUNZ
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HISTORY AND MYTH 5
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6 PETER MUNZ
to disinterested observatio
that such and such event
as to the level of detail a
It seems that both kinds
myth is a story; if one is
one might expect to ha
certain pattern, of a cert
one's observation of a spa
tion in mind.
The facts, in other words, are loose. They are not necessarily worked
loose by the imagination of a myth-maker. On the contrary, if we analyse
the matter sufficiently, we will find that the only structural attachment
facts have is the one provided for them by a pattern of myth, that is by
a story which is itself not based upon a simple observation of historical
facts in a certain order.
II
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HISTORY AND MYTH 7
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8 PETER MUNZ
III
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HISTORY AND MYTH 9
IV
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10 PETER MUNZ
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HISTORY AND MYTH 11
VI
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12 PETER MUNZ
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HISTORY AND MYTH 13
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14 PETER MUNZ
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HISTORY AND MYTH 15
VII
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16 PETER MUNZ
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