Faculty and Student Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2021
Abstract
This paper sketches a new approach to the critical-theoretic problem of reifcation understood as a normatively problematic form of naturalizing or dehistoricizing entifcation. Entifcation in general is approached phenomenologically in terms of the mythic outer horizonality of the lifeworld, and reifcation is shown to stem from the dichotomy between nature and history which, along with a corresponding dichotomy between myth and reason, is characteristic of Enlightenment rationality. Dereifcation necessitates overcoming these dichotomies, and this implies a critical embrace of myth and mythopoesis in the sense of instituting more normatively appropriate lifeworld horizons. While classical Marxism and radical social theory have typically adhered to the standard model of Enlightenment thought, with the result that the critique of naturalization backfres by reinforcing the dichotomy between nature and history, Luxemburgian spontaneism, rethought through a phenomenology of embodied enaction, is shown to ofer a more viable way of understanding reifcation and its solution.
Relational Format
journal article
Recommended Citation
Smyth, B. (2021). Mythopoetic naturalization. Metodo, 9(2), 469–500. https://doi.org/10.19079/metodo.9.2.469
DOI
10.19079/metodo.9.2.469
Accessibility Status
Searchable text