Mythology of Loss

On a structuring characteristic of ontology

Abstract

This article aims to present as a distinctive characteristic of ontological discourse the formulation of an "origin myth" of the human condition, understood from the structural loss of a constitutive element of our humanity, which philosophical activity itself seeks to restore – as a ritual form appropriate to this myth. We take as the guiding thread of the analysis the presentation of ontological discourse in a place where it is explicitly named (the work of Martin Heidegger), comparing moments of his reflection with its other chronological extreme (the ontological discourse in Plato). It is noted, at both ends of ontology, an equal propensity to make philosophy the diagnostic analysis of this loss and, at the same time, its remedial practice. At the end of the text, we will seek to outline an alternative, for philosophy, to the mythology of loss that appears in ontological discourse: the possibility of temporal fragmentation of the mythic circle, found in literary narratives.