Jak mitologia „radzi sobie” z historią, jak historia staje się mitologią. (W odniesieniu do koncepcji Theodora Lessinga i Mircei Eliadego)

In  his remarks  on the  Western  culture,  Theodor  Lessing pays much attention  to a problem  of Western  people’s attitude  towards history. His critical judgments of the culture are usually compared with Friedrich Nietzsche’s thought (whose philosophy exerted much influence on Lessing’s writings). However, it seems that Lessing’s remarks on a part which history plays in the Western culture may be related  also to a theory of a later  thinker  – Mircea  Eliade,  presenting  mythology’s  role  of imposing a definite attitude  towards history on a society. What  is to be remarked,  is that  Lessing’s ideas allow a conclusion that the source of the Western people’s attitude  towards history, themselves and the surrounding reality – may be searched in myths and religion that underlie  their culture. That is because Lessing perceives the Western culture’s attitude towards history as based on a sense-and-purpose-seeking social mythology, derived from Christian  inspirations.  This conclusion, derived from his writings, is related  to Mircea Eliade’s theory of “coping with” history in the traditional conceptions of the eternal-return and also in Judaic and Christian  heritage.