Abstract

In this lucid and elegant book, originally written in 1966, Kolakowski's goal is to trace "the presence of myth" in nonmythical areas of experience such as science, logic, and love. The author's understanding of myth goes slightly beyond the traditional usage, "the truth symbolically presented." The function of myth, Kolakowski claims, "is to catch a permanently constitutive element of culture", which keeps our culture alive. But what is this element? Myth, according to Kolakowski, imposes meaning on the world of phenomena, and at the same time explains our place in it.