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Lonely_Cosmonaut t1_iv0ip98 wrote

Reply to comment by DrakBalek in The meaning crisis and language II — We need to ‘believe’ myth and metaphor in order to understand ourselves by Melodic_Antelope6490

Im particularly interested in state mythologies and how we use them or are used by them, do you think people can exist without any kind of „story“ or constructed narrative?

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DrakBalek t1_iv0jfje wrote

I don't, actually. Our brains are wired for certain kinds of communication and storytelling is one of the more critical aspects of our basic nature.

This isn't to say that "story" (or constructed narratives) exist independent of people ~which is a position I encounter a lot on the internet ~rather, that it exists in our minds and in our words.

And, by extension (and to some degree), through our actions.

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Lonely_Cosmonaut t1_iv0kiq6 wrote

I think this is the most striking topic in philosophy and it cuts straight through to our daily lives. I agree with you. I think that human beings have been telling stories since there were human beings, and that infact perhaps even telling stories is an attribute of being human itself. It’s dangerous and it is only rarely explored in serious work I’ve noticed, sometimes in Fiction like Frank Herbert’s Dune. (An excellent series on this very topic)

As an aside I don’t think that we fully understand mythologies and their applications and I’m deeply fascinated by them.

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