秩序之下的国家——评卡西尔《国家的神话》

The Myth of the State is Ernst Cassirer’s last works. In this book, he reveals the myth of modern politics, and examines the genera-tion of totalitarianism. In Cassirer’s view, the myth and language of early times reflects intuitive human cognition, when humans and gods lived within the order of myth. When philosophy arose, the gods retreated, and people become the first principle. Although Plato created the concept of the ideal state, in the Middle Ages,God again replaced ra-tionality, and the secular state was under the di-vine order of God. After Machiavelli’s reforms, the secular state won independence from the divine or-der, and history’s replacement it with rationality became the first principle. Until Hegel’s objective idealism combined history and rationality, realistic countries became not only the care takers of abso-lute spirit, but also the ultimate form of history. Actual states were like living gods, because of no constraints, it finally was utilized by totalitarian ambitions. In his book, Cassirer reveals that cul-ture restricts the state’s power. However, he does not think that power could legislate itself. Instead, it is only the construction within the order of either culture, rationality or history, that states can con-firm their own positions.