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Sunday 22 September 2024

Myths and Metaphors



In what sense can myths and metaphors be true or false? In the sense that, in terms drawn from moral predicaments or from literary psychology, they may report the general movement and the pertinent issue of material facts, and may inspire us with a wise sentiment in their presence. In this sense I should say that Greek mythology was true and Calvinist theology was false.

George Santayana - Some Turns of Thought in Modern Philosophy: Five Essays (1933)


An interesting quote where Santayana says that Greek mythology, the conflicts, quests, battles, heroics, successes, failures, rewards and punishment, magic and mysteries can guide us towards wisdom in the real world. Calvinist theology does not guide us in this way and in this sense is false.

A fascinating distinction because reasoning isn’t about sticking with what we think we know. We may usefully spread our wings via myth and metaphor. We could go on to rephrase Santayana’s quote and make a similar contrast between ancient Greek mythology and our political Calvinists –


In what sense can myths and metaphors be true or false? In the sense that, in terms drawn from moral predicaments or from literary psychology, they may report the general movement and the pertinent issue of material facts, and may inspire us with a wise sentiment in their presence. In this sense I should say that Greek mythology was true and Marxist doctrine is false.

3 comments:

Sam Vega said...

I knew lots of Marxists, of many different varieties, at university. None of them were what I would call good people. That's distinctly odd, and I'd struggle to think of any other large group of people who self identify with a particular movement for whom that was also true.

dearieme said...

Fair enough, Sam, but I remember the republicans as being even less pleasant.

A K Haart said...

Sam and dearieme - there seems to be something about political movements which attracts unpleasant people, but we don't make a good job of defending ourselves against them. The party system certainly doesn't weed them out.