Myth and the Existential Quest

Vassilis Vitsaxis

ISBN 978-0-977461-00-4

About the Book

This book by a contemporary Greek philosopher describes the integral role of myth in the human quest for knowledge and truth. Using imagination, feeling, and reason, men and women have fashioned myths, spirits, and gods from whom they sought answers through the languages of prophecy and magic. Myth, being a natural outgrowth of the earthly adventure of men and women, has been and will ever remain their inseparable fellow traveler and refuge in their existential quest.

Praise for the Book

“With the intertextuality that characterizes his works, the clarity of his intellectual speculations, and the aesthetic completeness of his language, Vassilis Vitsaxis approaches his subject in a multi-faceted fashion, and renders evident the positive potentialities of myth.” -- Anna Kelesidou, Professor of Philosophy

About the Author

Vassilis Vitsaxis, philosopher, writer, poet, and diplomat, was born in Athens. His literary and philosophical works have been published in 14 European and Asian languages, and have received awards from the Academy of Athens and the French Academy. He is a corresponding member of the Academy of Letters (Russia) and the Academy of Letters and Sciences (India), and has also received honorary degrees from the University of Athens and the Stockton College of New Jersey.

Excerpt

The great ontological question, with its two aspects (i.e., the external “What exists?” and the internal “Who am I?”) was not only the main field of philosophical speculation; it has always been both humanity’s prerogative as well as its torment in various phases of the trajectory of historical development from the primitive down to the present era. Consciously or unconsciously, this question – dialectically identical in the quintessence of its two aspects – has put its seal on the spiritual life of people, parallel with their quest to satisfy their biological needs.