Myths that shape worlds: philomythic Flusser

Abstract

This article proposes an approach to Vilém Flusser's work based on his formative context in the 1960s and his interpretation of mythology, emphasizing his dialogue with the circle of the Brazilian philosopher Vicente Ferreira da Silva, aiming to define Ferreira da Silva’s influences on Flusser’s philosophy, especially regarding the relationship between literature, myth and history. The work proposes that Ferreira da Silva's influence is decisive for the exegesis of Flusser’s early works in Portuguese, intending to demonstrate how the Czech-Brazilian author reacted to his intellectual contact with Vicente and his group in São Paulo. The aim is to argue that Vicente’s main philosophical influence on the Flusserian work is in the configuration of myth as a founding element of cultures and even of philosophical discourse, and that Flusser – in an ambiguous opposition to Ferreira da Silva’s neopagan myth theory – establishes the mythical bases of modern and contemporary Western philosophy in Judeo-Christianity, through peculiar “philomitic” interpretations of Descartes’ philosophy, existential phenomenology and the history of the Modern Age.