Dialogue and Universalism

2/2024

SYMBOLS AND IMAGINARY IN CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY

EDITORIAL

SYMBOLS AND IMAGINARY IN CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434216

   The proposal of the theme Symbols and Imaginary in Contemporary Philosophy for 2–2024 issue of Dialogue and Universalism was based, beyond the fascination that this subject evokes, on some observations and questions: We are assaulted by the technological revolution and the rapid development of artificial intelligence, by the transformations of the world under the impact of globalization, by ecological problems, in the world there are two wars in which it is visible, beyond the precise actions, a conflict of interpretations, more precisely a confrontation between the narrative identities and political identities of the parties in conflict. Is this a good time for a theoretical debate around the theme of symbols and the imaginary in philosophy?

   The articles in this issue’s summary support an affirmative answer to this question, and I am grateful to the authors for their interest in the analysis and interpretation of symbols as concentrated expressions of both the imaginary and rationality.

   The classic understanding of the symbol as a “mark of recognition” indicates the role of the mental operation (of the subject) to discover correspondences between different realities, between the concrete object and its meaning in the plane of thought, between concept and reality, ultimately between visible and invisible, the possibility to bring together things from different regimes under the sense of a message.

   The different degrees of recognition of meanings in the signifier, starting from abstract concepts or from concrete experiences unfold in the perspectives from which the symbol can be studied: hermeneutics, phenomenology, anthropology, philosophy of religions, aesthetics, art theory, epistemology, logic, philosophy of language, abyssal psychology, political philosophy, poetics, ethnology, semantics, etc.

   This multivalence of the symbol shows its fundamental role in the functioning of the human mind and society, to convey the awareness of the values that give meaning to existence, to affirm a complex truth or a hope within the com plicated inter-human and institutional relations. Through communication in symbolic order, private truths (those of creation) become public, and the fact that these manifestations, whose variety has multiplied until now, have a long history proves their connaturality with the human structure.

   In the first half of the 20th century, Alfred North Whitehead emphasizes the fundamental role of symbolism—linguistic, artistic, ritual, institutional—in the functioning of societies, in maintaining their identity and in their progress towards freedom and rationality, and Ernst Cassirer considered the “symbolic system” being specific to the human being. In the second half of the last century, the unique experience of the symbolic “metamorphosis” experienced by man fascinated René Alleau (the author of an important work on the science of symbols), in a text entitled The Universe of the Symbol, Gilbert Durand spoke about the “human symbolic apparatus,” Michel Meslin defined the symbol as an expression of a “psychic totality” which “does not address a single faculty of man, his intelligence, but his entire being,” Cornelius Castoriadis wrote about “the imaginary institution of society,” and Mircea Eliade intended to write a book entitled Man as a Symbol.

   At the beginning of the 21st century, the philosophical concerns related to the place and the importance of the symbol are illustrated by authors such as Paul Ricoeur, Jean-Jacques Wunenburger, Michel Maffesoli and others.

   As for the impact of new technologies on symbolic thinking, experience shows that symbolism (in a broad sense) is the most vivid expression of creative free thinking.

   In his book Le conflit des interpretations. Essais d’herméneutique (1969), Paul Ricoeur expressed his point of view according to which “If we raise the problem of the symbol now, at this period of history it is in connection with certain traits of our ‘modernity,’ and to respond to this very modernity” because the historical moment of the philosophy of symbol is that of forgetting and also that of restoration. It is about “forgetting of hierophanies; forgetting the signs of the Sacred; loss of man himself as belonging to the Sacred.” Even if “this forgetting, we know, is the counterpart of the grandiose task of feeding men, of satisfying needs by mastering nature through planetary technology,” it is in the same time a gift of modernity, “because we are, we moderns, the men of philology, of exegesis, of phenomenology, of psychoanalysis, of the analysis of language,” people of the “era which develops the possibility of emptying language and that of filling it again.”

   I believe that these statements are also valid in the 21st century, when symbols provoke thought both through the interpretations they make possible and the realities they point to.

Lorena-Valeria Stuparu

Institute of Political Sciences and International Relations “Ion I. C. Brătianu”

Romanian Academy

ABSTRACTS

Cătălin Avramescu

FLAGS OF SHAME. POLITICS AND SYMBOLS IN CONTEMPORARY DEBATES

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434224

   Flags have become a battlefield of choice in politics. This state of affairs is, however, a relatively recent phenomenon. A visible turning point in the process of the desacralization of the flag has been the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in the case Texas v. Johnson (1989). The social and intellectual threads that have led us here are numerous, including the nineteenth-century debates occasioned by the Confederate flag and the controversies regarding the symbols of the revolutionary Left. Ruth Benedict’s distinction (1946) between “shame cultures” and “guild cultures” has provided a conceptual frame to advance the understanding of the meaning of highly symbolic actions to desecrate the national flag. In the twenty-first century, after imperial cultures and identities decline, shaming the flag has become part of the narrative of political polarization in many democracies worldwide.

Keywords: Flags, symbols, shame, mythology of empire, freedom of expression, symbolic speech.

Affiliation: Faculty of Political Science, University of Bucharest.

Email: catalin.avramescu@unibuc.ro

Yusril Bariki, Aula Nurul Ma’rifah

HALAL SYMBOLS IN MUSLIM COMMUNITY BUSINESSES

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434230

   This article discusses halal symbols in the Muslim religion; Muslims use halal as a guide for purchasing food and drink products. The article discusses especially the background of the existence of the halal logo, state regulations and the awareness of the Muslim community. Following results given in selected positions of the literature of the subject the authors come to the following theses and conclusions: the obligation to carry out halal certification has been regulated by Law Number 33 of 2014 and Government Regulation Number 39 of 2021. In implementing the program this has been done in 38 provinces of Indonesia. The existence of the halal logo obligation aims to guarantee consumer protection for purchased goods, especially in Muslim communities.

Keywords: Symbols, halal, products, Muslim community, culture, consumption.

Affiliation: 

Yusril Bariki — Doctoral Student in Sunan Kalijaga Yogyakarta State Islamic university, Indonesia.

Emails: yusrilpersibat@gmail.com

Aula Nurul Ma’rifah — Lecturer, Kediri State Islamic University, Sunan Ampel East Java, Indonesia.

Emails: aulanurul@iainkediri.ac.id

Ioana Constantin-Bercean

(DE)CONSTRUCTING THE “OTHERNESS:” A DEBATE ON EDWARD SAID’S LEGACY

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434228

   The problem of social and cultural diversity has been a classic issue in the humanities and the social sciences throughout the entire human history. Starting with the 1970s academics were interested in a specific feature of this inter-cultural problem, namely how Western societies have understood and interpreted oriental societies through the period of imperial expansion. Even nowadays, some of the most complicated academic dialogues (and not only) are centered around the theories of post-colonialism and nationalism. The ‘subjects’ of these debates are mainly the Middle Eastern states and the predominant variable is the region’s main religion, Islam. The Orient signifies a system of representations framed by political forces that brought the Orient into Western learning, Western consciousness, and Western empires. The Orient exists for the West, and is constructed by and in relation to the West. The critics of Orientalism consider this theory to be a manner of regularized (or Orientalized) writing, vision, and study, dominated by imperatives, perspectives, and ideological biases ostensibly suited to the Orient. This article proposes a brief introspection into the creation of alterity in Western literature and a review of the perspective offered by the best-known critic of this paradigm, Edward Said.

Keywords: Edward Said, orientalism, postcolonial studies.

Affiliation: “Ion I.C. Brătianu” Institute of Political Science and International Relations, Romanian Academy.

Email: ioananeliabercean@gmail.com

Ionel Bușe

ON THE ANDROGYNY OF THE CYBORG —AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL DIFFICULTY

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434221

   In this essay we have highlighted some significant differences between two visions of the human being: an interand transdisciplinary visions of the integral man which consider the human as a hypercomplex being, created by a long process of self-poiesis of its natural and cultural history and another scientific utopian/dystopic vision which projects the necessity of the existence of a superintelligent artificial being in the future, the cyborg, which would replace humanity.

Keywords: Mytho-poetic, androgynous, utopia, dystopia, cyborg.

Affiliation: University of Craiova.

Email: ionelbuse@yahoo.com

Wilhelm Dancă

MAN AS A SYMBOL IN THE MEMORIES OF MIRCEA ELIADE

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434218

   In this study I would like to make an exposition of religious symbolism, as it is seen by the Romanian scholar, underlining the anthropological aspects of the problem, to the extent that his autobiographical writings allow us. Hermeneutics, as the science of norms that allow us to discover and interpret the authentic meaning, and the symbol, with its double “existential and cognitive” function which is present in every area of life or thought, justifies in a certain way the Eliadian homo symbolicus. Man as a symbol is the title of a book designed by Mircea Eliade, but he never managed to write and publish it; even the book entitled Anthropocosmos, in which he wanted to present “the profound meaning and structural solidarity of all those symbols, rites, beliefs, in relation to the labyrinth, the mandala, the foundation of the city, etc.,” was not published.

Keywords: Eliadian homo symbolicus, religious symbolism, anthropological aspects, autobiographical writings, hermeneutics.

Affiliation: University of Bucharest.

Email: wilhelm.danca@gmail.com

Gabriela Goudenhooft

IMAGINING POWER: HERMENEUTIC INSIGHTS INTO IMAGINED NATIONS AND THE LEGITIMATION OF POLITICAL AUTHORITY

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434222

   This paper explores the relationship between imaginary constructs of nations and the legitimation of political authority through hermeneutic analysis. By examining how symbolic, mythic, and narrative elements within political discourse create and sustain the concept of the nation, the study seeks to understand their role in legitimizing power. The aim is to provide a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms through which national identity and political legitimacy are intertwined and maintained.

Keywords: imaginary, legitimation, identity, symbol, authority.

Affiliation: Department of Political Sciences and Communication, University of Oradea.

Email: gabrielagoud@gmail.com

Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu, Michael Paul Pilani

SEMIOTIC HERMENEUTIC OF “NEW WINE, NEW WINESKINS:” SYMBOLS, PHILOSOPHY OF DEVELOPMENT AND AFRICA

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434225

   This study looks to the biblical parable in Matthew 9:17 about “new wine and new wineskins” as a symbolic lens for understanding Africa’s need to embrace progressive values and philosophies so as to break free from its developmental shackles. Employing an expository approach, the paper first analyses the meaning and symbolism of the new wine/wineskins metaphor, which warns against trying to contain new, transformative ideas within outdated, inflexible structures. It then surveys specific socio-political and economic obstacles hindering development across Africa. The paper submits that the future of Africa lies in a profound reorientation toward openness to change and a willingness to continually renew its social, political, and economic “wineskins.”

Keywords: Symbol, hermeneutics, New Wineskins, Africa, philosophy of development.

Affiliation: 

Email: pilanimaria@gmail.com

Ikechukwu Anthony Kanu, Michael Paul Pilani

THE AREWA SYMBOL: A CONFLUENCE OF PHILOSOPHICAL, RELIGIOUS AND CULTURAL TRADITIONS

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434229

   The Arewa symbol is much more than an emblem or a decorative pattern for the people of Northern Nigeria. It is an embodiment of their rich religious, cultural and philosophical heritage. While several works have been written on the Arewa symbol, this paper distinguishes itself by its focus on the interaction of philosophy, culture, and theological ideals in the Arewa symbol. The symbol is, therefore, a metaphorical expression of the philosophical, theological and cultural principles of the Northern region’s heritage. For the purpose of achieving the aim and objectives of this paper, the historical, hermeneutic and analytical methods of inquiry will be used. The paper discovered that the Arewa symbol captures the very essence of Hausa identity and the enduring legacy of Northern Nigeria’s rich tapestry of beliefs, traditions, and wisdom.

Keywords: Arewa, symbol, Northern Nigeria.

Affiliation: 

Email: pilanimaria@gmail.com

Mihaela Czobor-Lupp

ART AND HUMANISM IN THE WORK OF TZVETAN TODOROV

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434231

   In reaction to what he defines as the modern (anti-humanistic) totalitarian frame of mind, characterized by scientism, Manicheism, and aestheticism, the French critic and historian of ideas, Tzvetan Todorov engages in an ambitious project of rethinking humanism. A (post-Romantic) view of art that retains its representational role, its intersubjective and truth-disclosive power, and that does not betray the humanism that marked the debut of modernity, plays a central role in this enterprise.

I argue in this paper that, through his interpretation of the works of different modern painters, Todorov reconstructs an artistic gaze, a way of looking at the world, that can nourish a humanistic sensibility in modern societies. This humanistic artistic gaze pluralizes the representational space of the human without failing to develop a common narrative about humanity. In tune with the values of what I call quotidian humanism, it is a gaze that can redeem the meaning and the sacred dimension of our most elemental quotidian gestures and activities. More than anything else, it is a gaze that refuses to reduce the richness and even the ambiguity of an individual’s presence and life to an idea or a doctrine and that chooses to see other human beings not with a moralizing eye, but with love, even kindness, for their complex and concrete humanity.

Keywords: totalitarian frame of mind, modern art, artistic gaze, quotidian humanism, Enlightenment, universalism.

Affiliation: Department of Political Science at Carleton College, MN, USA.

Email: mlupp@carleton.edu

Adriana Neacșu

SYMBOL AND FAITH IN MIRCEA ELIADE

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434220

   This article analyzes Mircea Eliade’s conception of the role of the symbol in the expression of faith. It points out that Eliade considers belief a constitutive structure of the human being, and that homo religious is par excellence a homo symbolicus. Approaching the nature of the symbol as a form of autonomous knowledge, and its structure, it highlights the specificity of symbolic thinking, which generates it. Focusing on the man of archaic societies, exemplary for the religious mentality, it develops the problem of the functions of symbols within traditional communities. It shows that on the basis of archetypal symbolic images, primitive man creates symbolic complexes through which he explains the world and pursues his integration into it—presenting some of the great religious symbolisms. Finally, it highlights Eliade’s position that symbols will never disappear because they are constitutive of the human being, like religious belief, to which they are inextricably linked.

Keywords: symbol, symbolic thinking, symbolic complex, faith, sacred, profane, archetype, myth, hierophany.

Affiliation: University of Craiova, Romania.

E-mail: neacsuelvira2@gmail.com

Hardiyanti, Hastanti Widy Nugroho

HETERONORMATIVITY: CONTENTIOUS SYMBOL OF BELONGING IN INDONESIA FROM THE PLURIVERSE PERSPECTIVE

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434226

   Unity has been touted as the cornerstone of Indonesian nationalism since its declaration in 1945. With the national motto Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, Indonesian unity holds a sacred and absolute status. However, in reality, unity sometimes becomes a national problem. This article revisits Indonesian unity by shedding light on its darker aspects, namely heteronormativity, and introduces how Indonesian unity can be supported by a new ontological alternative: pluriverse. The study provides a brief historical overview of the New Order era and the family ideology that shaped an adherence to heteronormative norms, and followed by exploration of the pluriverse as an ethical ontological foundation that can deepen the struggle for unity.

Keywords: Heteronormativity, pluriverse, Indonesia, New Order, gender.

Affiliation: Universitas Gadjah Mada.

Email: hastanti_widy@ugm.ac.id

Krzysztof Przybyszewski

CONTEMPORARY AUTOCRATISATION OF DEMOCRACIES IN THE CONTEXT OF “A PARADOX OF DEMOCRACY”

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434227

   After the fall of the “Iron Curtain,” Francis Fukuyama formulated a thesis on structural victory of liberal democracy and its fundamental values, such as freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of worldview, freedom of the press etc. This thesis was demonstrably erroneous, as at the beginning of the 21st century, the crisis of liberal democracy in relation to the growth of populist movements is mentioned more and more frequently. While seizing power through democratic means, populist parties abandon the ideals of liberal democracy and values and pivot towards an autocratic governance model while ostensibly adhering to the rules of formal democracy. It was Hannah Arendt, who warned against such a situation saying that tendencies to move towards autocracy within democracies are specific for multi-party systems, while two-party systems in democracies are relatively less prone to such transformation.

   With regard to the above, the problem which philosophy of politics calls a “paradox of democracy” reappears. Among other things, it is related to the question on the limit of tolerance the liberal democracy has for thoughts, attitudes, actions and words which are substantially opposed to democracy and may lead to autocracy. At the same time, we are observing the fact of reappearance of the militant democracy theory, formulated by Karl Loewenstein. The aim of this article is to look closely at the theory and its suggested modifications (described as neo-militant democracy), as well as to answer the questions on what tools are needed and if they are even possible to be used to defend not only procedures, but also values of democracy from its progressive destabilisation in the face of digital revolution.

Keywords: Liberal democracy, neo-militant democracy, freedom of speech, thought, disinformation, the legitimation of power, tolerance.

Affiliation: Adam Mickiewicz University Department of Philosophy of Politics and Social Communication, Faculty of Philosophy, Poznań, Poland.

Email: kprzyby@amu.edu.pl

Bogdan Rusu

PEIRCE’S SEMIOTICS AND THE BACKGROUND OF WHITEHEAD’S SYMBOLISM

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434217

   The aim of this paper is to present Peirce’s semiotics as an important factor in the genesis of Alfred North Whitehead’s doctrine of symbolism. I argue that Peirce had a direct impact on Whitehead’s earliest reflections on symbolism generally and mathematical symbolism particularly. From his first encounter with Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotic doctrine, contrasted to that of George F. Stout, Whitehead derived a general doctrine of signs which he never abandoned and which formed the basis of his mature doctrine of symbolism. While in the first years of his Harvard professorship, Whitehead suffered a second, indirect, influence from Peirce, through the American philosophers he interacted with. His mature philosophy of perception is both the development and application of the doctrine derived from Peirce and Stout thirty years before, and a reply to the realist doctrines which stressed the symbolic nature of perceptual knowledge, most importantly Santayana’s. Whitehead’s own brand of realism rests on the assumption of a pansemiotic principle, obscurely and mediately derived from Peirce.

Keywords: Alfred N. Whitehead, Charles S. Peirce, George Santayana, algebraic reasoning, symbolism, symbolic reference, perception, critical realism, pansemiotism.

Affiliation: University of Bucharest.

Email: bogdan.p.rusu@gmail.com

Henrieta Șerban

THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE VIRTUAL REALMS, RIGHT NOW

https://doi.org/10.5840/du20243423

   The virtual is just the latest expansion of human craving for meaning and it is brimming with opportunities: mostly symbolic, nonetheless, real. Thinking, presenting or manipulating a situation has always been dependent on the symbolic operations (Mircea Eliade, Raoul Girardet, Lucian Blaga, Camil Petrescu, Ernst Cassirer), on the uses and abuses of the referential and condensed symbols (Murray Edelman). At the same time, such operations are not reserved entirely to politics. In our virtually expanded contemporary lives, we relate to symbolic meanings, either consciously or not. As Slavoj Zizek noticed: “Behind the realities there are phantasies and behind the phantasies, realities.” Baudrillard’s ecstasy of communication and simulacra present the offer of a golden age open for individuals and politicians alike. The enemies are clear and the saviours, too. Just like decorations hanging in the virtual window here there are the (slightly) cosmeticized images of ourselves carved as individual persona representations, or, as the solutionmessages for the current problems, prompt as a soft form of political management. All these symbolic décors in the virtual malls that we visit and consolidate are symbolic attempts to approximate the golden age as we can “see” it, in our human everlasting aspirations for success and prosperity, for stability, communion and, possibly, peace.

Keywords: The myth of the golden age, virtual ontological spaces, the human being.

Affiliation: Ion I. C. Brătianu.

E-mail: henrietaserban@gmail.com

Lorena Valeria Stuparu

ON THE CLARITY, AMBIGUITIES AND INTERPRETATIONS OF THE SYMBOL

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434233

   The symbol refers to “substituted entities,” to something other than what is translated by the direct meaning of the expression. One principle of symbolization is that of placing ourselves in the order of recognition which opens an access path to knowledge, that of keeping us within the horizon of remembrance in order to recompose the initial truth in its fullness and communicate its strong impression. In parallel with the universe ordered, according to objective laws, a symbolic universe is developed, ordered according to its own laws (universes between the structures of which analogies are possible). Starting from these premises, in my paper I will refer in particular to the anthropological and cultural relevance of religious discourse and artistic language, to the interferences between them.

Keywords: symbolic order, interpretation, indirect knowledge, visible and invisible, discovery of the Self.

Affiliation: Ion I. C. Brătianu” Romanian Academy.

Email: l_stuparu@yahoo.com

Achmad Tubagus Surur, Muhamad Shulthoni, Hendri Hermawan Adinugraha

ISLAMIC ECONOMIC PRACTICES IN INDONESIA: ESSENCE OR SYMBOL IN A MUSLIM-MAJORITY COUNTRY IN THE WORLD
https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434234

   As the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, Indonesia has great potential in the halal industry. However, research on symbols in Indonesia’s Islamic philosophy and economic history is still far behind that of other countries. Therefore, efforts are needed to improve its study. This research aims to describe and understand the importance of the symbol in the philosophy and history of Islamic economic practices in Indonesia. The findings of this qualitative research, conducted in Indonesia, have practical implications for the halal industry and Islamic economic practices. Data was collected by conducting observations, in-depth interviews, and documentation. Data analysis is carried out by reducing data, presenting data, and giving meaning to the data that has been collected, and from that meaning, conclusions are drawn. This research has concluded that the essence of the Islamic economic process in Indonesia is an effort to fulfill the needs of the Indonesian people based on Islamic values to achieve happiness in the world and the hereafter. The Islamic economic system has become a phenomenon that is the object of the study of Islamic economic philosophy in Indonesia today. The urgency of Islamic economic philosophy in the context of Indonesian Muslim society can be found at the level of implementation. Islamic economic practices have become a way of life for the people of Indonesia. The main principle of Islamic economics holds fast to the concept of tawhid. Many things can be learned from the Islamic economy in Indonesia, ranging from the rules of legal buying and selling, lending and borrowing with legal contracts, and investment in Islam to the prohibition of usury, avoiding things that are haram, injustice, and usury. The Islamic economic system has proven to be beneficial for all people, both Muslims and non-Muslims.

Keywords: essence, philosophy, Islamic economics, and Indonesia.

Affiliation: 

Achmad Tubagus Surur — Faculty of Islamic Economics and Business, UIN K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid Pekalongan, Indonesia.

E-mail: achmad.tubagus.surur@uingusdur.ac.id

Muhamad Shulthoni — Faculty of Islamic Economics and Business, UIN K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid Pekalongan, Indonesia.

E-mail: m.shulthoni@uingusdur.ac.id

Hendri Hermawan Adinugraha — Faculty of Islamic Economics and Business, UIN K.H. Abdurrahman Wahid Pekalongan, Indonesia.

E-mail: hendri.hermawan@uingusdur.ac.id

Bogdana Todorova

THE ROLE OF POLITICAL SYMBOLISM IN CONSTRUCTING A NATIONAL IRANIAN IDENTITY

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434223

   Symbolism is at the heart of the political process and any symbol can potentially become a part of the political field. Applying the “positive symbol” concept I underlines that the Iranian nation is formed through the symbolic forms of ideas and values. Two types of symbols can be identified in the formation of Iranian identity: symbolssignifiers and integrating symbols. The article pays attention to the role of symbols, the role of the so called “guardians” and the role of Corbin’s “imaginal world” in the construction of Iranian identity. The paper shows in its conclusion that the role of political symbolism in constructing a national Iranian identity is significant and acting as a “symbol-strategy,” consisting of symbolic actions.

Keywords: Political symbolism, Iranian identity, imaginal world.

Affiliation: Institute for Philosophy and Sociology, The Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.

Email: bonytodorova@gmail.com

Jean-Jacques Wunenburger

MYTHOLOGIES OF TIMES IN THE WEST: UTOPIA, MILLENNISM AND MESSIANISM

https://doi.org/10.5840/du202434219

   This paper presents the result of researching the mythical conceptions of history in the West, which shed light on numerous cultural and political data that entered the sphere of the imaginary reflected in religions, utopias, and finally, in art. The study is structured in three parts, namely: the three scenarios of universal history; the significant myths of great narratives; the problems of the myth of unique time. These aspects bring into question and demonstrate the importance of the imaginary for the understanding of cosmological and anthropological time.

Keywords: time, universal history, myth, the great narratives, imaginary constructions.

Affiliation: Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University.

Email: jean-jacques.wunenburger@wanadoo.fr