henk oosterling on the myth of the autonomous subject
Here I would like to assert that in Western thought in spite of the fact that we have tried to banish myth in a radical way from our conception of world and history, we involuntarily reintroduced it in a very peculiar way… the rational discourse of Enlightment [sic], which has become the dominating discourse in Western philosophy, has produced a new myth: the autonomous subject. Although modern philosophy flatters itself with the thought, that it completely freed itself from the shackles of mythology and externally imposed authority in the form of religion , many 20th century philosophers have recognized the fact that as in myth, Enlightment gets trapped into mythology with each step it takes in order to enlarge the distance between itself and mythology… this subject, who thought he was the lord of creation and the driving force of history, became a myth himself. His urge to develop and to finalize, to objectify and dominate has produced counterforces which it can no longer control.”
Henk Oosterling
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