10.26180/5dc0b7e38d3e3 JAMES FRANCIS KENT JAMES FRANCIS KENT Traces of the Past: History and Myth in Vico, Benjamin and Blumenberg Monash University 2019 Giambattista Vico Walter Benjamin Hans Blumenberg myth history cultural memory Philosophy 2019-11-04 23:44:33 Thesis https://bridges.monash.edu/articles/thesis/Traces_of_the_Past_History_and_Myth_in_Vico_Benjamin_and_Blumenberg/10250846 This thesis argues that the dichotomy between ‘myth’ and ‘reason’ is untenable because myth is a primary inculcation of a rational life. This conclusion is based on the premise that myths are stories that connect individuals and communities to their pasts (both real and imagined). I offer a critique of Giambattista Vico's, Walter Benjamin's, and Hans Blumenberg's philosophical approaches to myth. All three argue that mythic stories are a locus where individuals and groups can reflect, and ‘work on’, their pasts. Myth, therefore, plays a vital role in how human beings come to orientate, and exercise, their historical, and thus rational, agency.