ABSTRACT
In the nineteenth century myth and science were taken to be incompatible. Myth and science, it was assumed, originated and functioned identically: to explain the operation or origin of all events in the physical world. Both myth and science were read literally. The subject matter of myth was the physical world. Myth attributed events to either the decision or the condition of a god. Science attributed events to mechanical processes. In the twentieth century myth and science were taken to be compatible because they went their separate ways. Either the origin and function of myth were other than explanatory, or else myth was to be read symbolically, in which case the subject matter of myth was other than gods or the physical world—or both. For example, myth, it was claimed, arose and served to justify suffering, to express the human condition, to unify society, or to reveal the unconscious. The subject matter of myth was society or human beings, which could include the human experience of the physical world but not the physical world itself. The figures discussed are Tylor, Müller, Frazer, Lévy-Bruhl, Malinowski, Lévi-Strauss, and Popper.
