Abstract

This is a "philosophic inquiry concerning the order of human existence in society and history." The first in a projected series of six volumes, it deals with the cosmological myth as the principle of organization in the imperialistic societies of ancient Mesopotamia and Egypt. The imbalance of such an order is diagnosed, and the emergence of the historical order of ancient Israel is analyzed. The order of history is also treated as manifesting itself in different modes of symbolizing: 1) the participation in being, 2) the pre-occupation with the lasting and the passing, 3) the construction of symbols "to interpret the unknown by analogy with the really or supposedly known. The history of symbols is a progression from compact to differentiated experiences and symbols."--A. R.