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MISCELLANEOUS The M ~ t h the State. ERNSTCASSIRER. of (xii, 303 pp., $3.75. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1946.) The Myth of the State is the final work completed by Ernst Cassirer shortly before his death in April, 1945, and has been edited for publication by Professor Charles W. Hendel, his colleague at Yale, who contributes an interesting Foreword. One gathers that the present work was written by the author for the purpose of explaining the meaning of what is happening today in the perspective of history and philosophy. As a work of humanistic scholarship it is undoubtedly significant and valuable and takes its place beside his other recently published works, namely, his Essay on Mait and Language and Myth, as a first-rate contribution to the critical study of the history of ideas. But taken as a constructive or systematic work in philosophical anthropology designed t o provide insight into the contemporary cultural crisis it is, on the whole, rather disappointing, notwithstanding the many fresh and stimulating suggestions it has to offer. Cassirer, it appears, was more fascinated by the history of ideas than by systematic interpretation of contemporary culture. The work under consideration is divided into three parts. Part One deals with the problem What is Myth. Part Two offers a critical survey of The Struggle Against Myth in the History of Political Theory. Part Three is devoted to The Myth of the Twentieth Century (but does not discuss or refer to Alfred Rosenbergs notorious work by that name). I n effect, the book deals with two major topics, namely, the concept of myth in primitive and modern culture, and the history of political theory from Plato to Hegel. The historical material comprises by far the greater portion of the book. I n considering the problem of myth, Cassirer, it would appear, attempted to combine or synthesize diverse approaches which historically, at least, have been held to be incompatible. I n the first place, we find his Neo-Kantian thesis that myth is an innate symbolic form which, together with language, determines the mode or perspective in which mankind originally views the world (a point developed a t length in Language and Myth). I n the course of cultural evolution this myth-making, prelogical stage is gradually transcended and the semantic, logical function of language and thought become primary (Essay on Man, p. 111). Finally, Cassirer agrees with Malinowski, in opposition to the intellectual approach of Frazer and Tylor who regarded the native as a primitive philosopher, that myth is a symbolic product or expression of mans emotional life and that its primary function is to provide a unity of feeling, and an awareness of the universality and fundamental identity of life (p. 37). He agrees, furthermore, with Malinowskis thesis (developed in the latters Myth i n Primitive Psychology, 1926) and with that of the Durkheim school that we must begin with a study of practical, social rites in order to understand myths, which are, after all, essentially interpretations of rites. Myth, Cassirer explains, is the epic element in primitive religious life; rite is the dramatic element (p. 28). I n brief, Cassirer attempts to combine a Neo-Kantian conception of a priori mythical forms or mental patterns together with the evolutionary approach of Comte and Lkvy-Bruhl on the one hand, and that of biological and sociological, pragmatic Functionalism on the other. Whether this anthropological philosophy of myth constitutes a logical unity or whether it is to

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be regarded as, in the last analysis, an incoherent, eclectic synthesis, is, to say the least, a problem which merits serious attention. I n his analysis of The Technique of Modern Political Myths (Chapter XVIII), Cassirer points out the parallel obtaining between primitive societies and modern political states. Taking up .Malinowskis thesis that native societies resort to magical practices whenever they are confronted with dangerous situations which appear to be beyond their natural powers of control, he observes that modern societies also resort to desperate means and to social magic (p. 281) in times of social crisis. In all critical moments of mans social life, he remarks, the rational forces that resist the rise of the old mythical conceptions are no longer sure of themselves. I n these moments the time for myth has come again. For myth has not been really vanquished and subjugated. It is always there, lurking in the dark and waiting for its hour and opportunity. This hour comes as soon as the other binding forces of mans social life, for one reason or another, lose their strength and are no longer able to combat the demonic mythical powers (p. 280). Myths are said to be expressions or objectifications of collective wishes which are personified in the leader who is endowed by a given society with powers of social magic to fulfil the collective wish. Cassirer reminds us in this connection of the Kantian doctrine that ethical freedom is not a natural fact or inheritance but a moral postulate and that in order to possess it we have to create it (p. 287). By natural instinct, he explains, man prefers dependence rather than political freedom and in times of crisis he prefers to cast off the burden of freedom. Cassirer, nevertheless, retains his rationalistic, liberal faith in cultural progress and in the power of reason ultimately to subdue and keep in check the demonic, irrational powers of myth which make for the enslavement of mankind. Thus he writes (p. 295): Yet when small groups do try to enforce their wishes and their fantastic ideas upon great nations and the whole body politic, they may succeed for a short time, and they may even achieve great triumphs, but these must remain ephemeral. For there is, after all, a logic of the social world just as there is a logic of the physical world. There are certain laws that cannot be violated with impunity. Even in this sphere we have to follow Bacons advice. We must learn how to obey the laws of the social world before we can undertake to rule it. Unfortunately, Cassirer does not explain just what these natural, social laws are and, so far as one can gather, they appear to be assumptions which he has taken over from Comte. While he grants that It is beyond the power of philosophy to destroy the political myths, since a myth is impervious to rational arguments and cannot be refuted by syllogisms (p. 296), he maintains, nevertheless, that We should carefully study the origin, the structure, the methods, and the technique of the political myths. We should see the adversary face to face in order to know how to combat him (p. 296). In the last analysis, one gets the impression that Cassirers optimistic faith is based on his uncritica1,assumption of linear, cultural evolution which he shares with the nineteenth century philosophers and anthropologists. It is hard to see how he can retain this faith in view of his admission of the precarious nature of rationalistic achievements and the tendency of societies to revert to prelogical, irrational, mythical mentality in

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times of crisis. Ultimately, it would appear, Cassirers humanism and faith in natural laws of cultural evolution are not reconciled.

DAVID BIDNEY
THE VIKING FUND NEW YORK CITY

Races. Land, and Food. A Program for World Subsistence. RADHAKAMALK E R J E E . MU (107 pp., $2.25. University of Lucknow, India. Introduction by Harold Ickes. The Dryden Press, New York, 1946.)
There is implicit in this book an application of the findings in anthropology to a solution of the problems of the world population. The author presents the thesis that the distribution of the populations in the world in relation to the available cultivable land is inefficient, discriminatory, and contains the possibilities of future unrest and war. Peace in the West without peace in the East will be a patched-up, temporary peace. I n . . . South and East Asia . . . half of humanity lives in only fourteen per cent of the globe land surface . . . while large land surfaces that are cultivable are almost uninhabited because whites cannot adjust to the climatic conditions and yet they restrict migration into those areas. These large areas are primarily tropic and sub-tropic where the colored peoples (mainly Chinese and the people of India) can settle. Thus there will be little contact and mixture or competition with the whites because the colored peoples will be scientifically settled upon the land as peasant farmers. These people will bring their cultural achievements, especially in agriculture and handicrafts, with them to the various indigenous groups who, under white domination, have been disappearing. Intermarriage and intercultural relations will occur. The net result will be good for the entire world. Starvation, injustice, and resentment in relation to the colored peoples of the world will disappear, while the acute and dangerous food shortage confronting the world population will be wiped out. The author uses many excellent sources, arguments, charts, maps and information. He indicates the importance of cultural background as well as of the entire ecology as regards the planned migrations. The presentation of the growth of population in the Far East is important. For example (p. 447) At the beginning of the 17th century, Indias population stood roughly a t 100,000,000. . . . Today it has reached the figure of 400,000,000. The concentration of population in certain specific areas is just as astounding when it is compared with some of the open areas which the author mentions. Coupled with all this, the food shortage which keeps millions of people on starvation rations, and the impossibility of migration imposed upon these people by the whites are leading to an explosive situation. If statesmanship fails now in the West, both social injustice and misery in the East may precipitate another global war that will be more catastrophic than the present one, arousing, as it will, racial passions among the yellow, brown, black, and white peoples, and sweeping like a tornado from one section of the globe to another (P. 41).