Abstract
Mythopoetic imagination as a source of critique and reconstruction: alternative storylines about our place in cosmos
Highlights
Big History (BH) is about developing a creation myth and origin story suitable to our globalized world characterised by (i) economic growth and ecological deterioration and (ii) by the existence of weapons of mass destruction and other risks
Mythopoetic imagination can be a means of critique of the prevailing myths
How is BH positioned and positioning itself in relation to the main scientific myths of the 21st century? I assess the plausibility of BH in terms of both logos and mythos; and criticising BH’s ambiguities, I argue in favour of the life-oriented storyline
Summary
Big History (BH) is about developing a creation myth and origin story suitable to our globalized world characterised by (i) economic growth and ecological deterioration and (ii) by the existence of weapons of mass destruction and other risks. It is well known that Giambattista Vico argued already in the early 18th century that human civilization is based on the emergent capacity to imagine, through complex language, and to create something new.[2] Since the time when humans transcended basic physical impulses with the help of language, we have cise ways so that they generate new qualities. Mythopoetic imagination can be a means for critique of prevailing myths.[5] In complex pluralist societies, there are hegemonic struggles over constitutive myths, shaping both our explanatory stories about the past and scenarios about possible futures.[6] These myths can be addressed in various ways (empirical, theoretical etc) and at various levels of abstraction. A Brief History of Humankind (New York: HarperCollins, 2014), ch 2, locate the origin of full language earlier than Jaynes (70,000 – 30,000 BCE rather than 25,000-15,000), but do not distinguish between full language and metaphorical language
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