Jak mitologia „radzi sobie” z historią, jak historia staje się mitologią. (W odniesieniu do koncepcji Theodora Lessinga i Mircei Eliadego)

In his remarks on the Western culture, Theodor Lessing pays much attention to a problem of Western people’s attitude towards history. His critical judgments of the culture are usually compared with Friedrich Nietzsche’s thought (whose philosophy exerted much influence on Lessing’s writings). However, it seems that Lessing’s remarks on a part which history plays in the Western culture may be related also to a theory of a later thinker – Mircea Eliade, presenting mythology’s role of imposing a definite attitude towards history on a society. What is to be remarked, is that Lessing’s ideas allow a conclusion that the source of the Western people’s attitude towards history, themselves and the surrounding reality – may be searched in myths and religion that underlie their culture. That is because Lessing perceives the Western culture’s attitude towards history as based on a sense-and-purpose-seeking social mythology, derived from Christian inspirations. This conclusion, derived from his writings, is related to Mircea Eliade’s theory of “coping with” history in the traditional conceptions of the eternal-return and also in Judaic and Christian heritage