Der Mythos des Vampirs. Die Schattenseite der Aufklärung

Abstract

The Myth of the Vampire: The Dark Side of the Enlightenment

The vampire is a figure of the collective imagination that is particularly present during the Enlightenment. It represents a dialectic of hope and fear that can hardly be systematized by the scientific language and the pure logic of the Enlightenment. In this sense, the vampire represents that dark side of the human spirit and of the enlightened reason that needs a different language to be expressed. This language can be found in the symbolic sphere of myth. For philosophy, this means an invitation to address the myth in a non-demythologizing way, but by recognizing its reference to a content of truth and becoming hermeneutic of the myth, as in the case of Schelling's positive philosophy and Luigi Pareyson's ontology of freedom.

Keywords: vampire, Enlightenment, myth, hermeneutics of myth, symbolic, superstition, dialectic of hope and fear