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Project D13


Myth and Heroization: Hans Blumenberg

 

Prof. Dr. Magnus Striet
Benjamin Dober

Department of Systematic Theology


The goal of this project is to analyze Hans Blumenberg’s interdisciplinary approach to mythology in order to better describe the formation and dynamism of heroization. This approach benefits all areas of the SFB 948. This project analyzes Blumenberg’s mythological theory in the context of his phenomenological anthropology with a particular focus on heroes. Blumenberg’s research on Kant, Fontane, E. Jünger and C. Schmitt will also serve as a starting point in the analysis of divergent human figurations, particularly in the heroic mythology of the 19th and 20th centuries. The history of theology and philosophy offers perspectives that are always linked with issues of anthropology and ethics. The practical applications of this interdisciplinary research will provide the structure for an accompanying dissertation project in which Blumenberg’s central anthropological category of “consolation” is used as a method for systematically and critically analyzing his work. This framework can be applied in terms of reflexivity to the field of medical ethics. The dissertation project is titled “Ethik des Trostes – Eine Untersuchung zu den praktischen Potentialen in der Philosophie Hans Blumenbergs” (“The Ethics of Consolation: An Analysis of Practical Applications in Hans Blumenberg’s Philosophical Works”).