scholarly journals Interrupção e montagem nas teses “Sobre o conceito de história” / Interruption and Assemblage in the Theses “On the Concept of History”

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 135
Author(s):  
Tomaz Amorim Izabel

Resumo: O artigo se pretende um ensaio a partir das teses “Sobre o conceito de história”, focando nos aspectos disruptivos de sua proposição sobre um contar histórico crítico à ideologia do progresso utilizando a técnica da montagem como uma de suas estratégias. Além disso, seguindo o gesto benjamininano de pensar o passado em um encontro com o tempo de agora – o jetztzeit –, sempre em risco de ser cooptado pela história dos vencedores, o artigo busca atualizar os perigos abordados por Benjamin na década de quarenta em nosso presente mergulhado em crises sociais, políticas e ecológicas. Trata-se menos de um panorama bibliográfico sobre este texto seminal do que uma tentativa de tornar efetivas suas potencialidades a partir de questões urgentes do agora.Palavras-chave: filosofia da história; modernidade; Walter Benjamin.Abstract: The article intends to be an essay about the thesis “On the concept of history”, focusing on the disruptive aspects of its proposition about a historical telling critical to the ideology of progress using the montage technique as one of its strategies. Moreover, following the Benjaminean gesture of thinking the past in a meeting with the present time – the jetztzeit – always in danger of being co-opted by the history of the winners, the article seeks to update the dangers that Benjamin addressed in the 1940s in our present steeped in social, political and ecological crises. It is less a bibliographical overview of this seminal text than an attempt to make its potentials effective on the urgent issues of the present.Keywords: philosophy of history; modernity; Walter Benjamin.

2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Davide Sparti

Obwohl jede menschliche Handlung mit einem gewissen Grad an Improvisation erfolgt, gibt es kulturelle Praktiken, bei denen Improvisation eine überwiegende Rolle spielt. Um das Risiko zu vermeiden, einen zu breiten Begriff von Improvisation zu übernehmen, konzentriere ich mich im vorliegenden Beitrag auf den Jazz. Meine zentrale Frage lautet, wie Improvisation verstanden werden muss. Mein Vorgehen ist folgendes: Ich beginne mit einem Vergleich von Improvisation und Komposition, damit die Spezifizität der Improvisation erklärt werden kann. Danach wende ich mich dem Thema der Originalität als Merkmal der Improvisation zu. Zum Schluss führe ich den Begriff affordance ein, um die kollektive und zirkuläre Logik eines Solos zu analysieren. Paradigmatisch wird der Jazzmusiker mit dem Engel der Geschichte verglichen, der nur auf das Vergangene blickt, während er der Zukunft den Rücken zugekehrt hat, und lediglich ihr zugetrieben wird. Weder kann der Improvisierende das Material der Vergangenheit vernachlässigen noch seine genuine Tätigkeit, das Improvisieren in der Gegenwart und für die Zukunft, aufgeben: Er visiert die Zukunft trotz ihrer Unvorhersehbarkeit über die Vermittlung der Vergangenheit an.<br><br>While improvised behavior is so much a part of human existence as to be one of its fundamental realities, in order to avoid the risk of defining the act of improvising too broadly, my focus here will be upon one of the activities most explicitly centered around improvisation – that is, upon jazz. My contribution, as Wittgenstein would say, has a »grammatical« design to it: it proposes to clarify the significance of the term »improvisation.« The task of clarifying the cases in which one may legitimately speak of improvisation consists first of all in reflecting upon the conditions that make the practice possible. This does not consist of calling forth mysterious, esoteric processes that take place in the unconscious, or in the minds of musicians, but rather in paying attention to the criteria that are satisfied when one ascribes to an act the concept of improvisation. In the second part of my contribution, I reflect upon the logic that governs the construction of an improvised performance. As I argue, in playing upon that which has already emerged in the music, in discovering the future as they go on (as a consequence of what they do), jazz players call to mind the angel in the famous painting by Klee that Walter Benjamin analyzed in his Theses on the History of Philosophy: while pulled towards the future, its eyes are turned back towards the past.


2018 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-24
Author(s):  
Wilhelm Schmidt-Biggemann

Abstract The essay – an elaborated version of my academic farewell speech [Abschiedsvorlesung] – discusses three theses: 1. Histories and history as well as history of philosophy and philosophy of history can only be staged as narratives. “True” stories enact the past and deliver schemes for anticipating the future; insofar history and future constitute the semantics of the present. 2. “Systematic” philosophy analyses the temporal narratives which store the historical experiences and eliminates their temporality in a process of transforming narratives into arguments. The most important step in this transformation consists in isolating the key notions of the narratives and in arranging these key notions in a “timeless” systematic order. 3. History of philosophy and philosophy of history restage, however, the temporal narrative, which systematic philosophy wants to eliminate from philosophy. This operation produces an unsolvable paradox where the claim of timeless truth and that of unescapable temporality are both valid. It throws up questions such as: how can it be possible for philosophical truths to lose their credit? Do timeless truths exist, and if so what do they mean? Do these paradoxes lead to schadenfreude on the part of the historian of philosophy, who knew it all along, or should one see these unsolvable complexities as a chance to enjoy the richness of possibilities which history unfolds? The essay chooses the second alternative.


2020 ◽  
pp. 35-42
Author(s):  
Artem Khamidulin ◽  

The article analyzes the philosophy of history of N. A. Berdyaev. The starting point of the article is the thesis about the relationship between the problematics of time and historical science. It is noted that for Berdyaev, the philosophy of time is one of the main themes of his philosophy of history. Attention is drawn to the feeling of dissatisfaction experienced by Berdyaev with the fluidity and mobility of time. The perception of the philosopher of time as solicitude and, to a large extent, as an evil or a disease that must be overcome is explicated. The reality of the past and future times equal to the present is revealed. The author demonstrates the bliss inspired by actual experience and philosophy of time. Concept of psychological time of Augustine, which justifies the reality of the past, present and future. Teaching about the instantaneity of the present as a point of interaction between time (historical and cosmic) and eternity (celestial time) of Berdyaev is considered. The possibility of experiencing this kind of moment is considered by Berdyaev on the basis of the existential dimension of time that flows in the depths of the human spirit. The author notes the influence of the teaching about the moment by Danish philosopher Sшren Kierkegaard on Berdyaev. A parallel is drawn between teaching on the meaning of the moment by Berdyaev and the concept of "kairos" of German theologian Paul Tillich. The article analyzes eschatology of Berdyaev, which determines his belonging to the traditions of the Russian religious philosophy of history. Two possible ways to overcome time are revealed: in an instant, i.e. repeatedly during human life, and as a result of the total end of history, which, according to Berdyaev, is also to a large extent a phenomenon of the existential sphere of being. According to Berdyaev, this kind of exit from time gives the opportunity to learn the meaning of history, on the one hand, and to free oneself from the enslaving power of time, on the other. It is concluded that Berdyaev understood the end of history existentially as a special spiritual experience that allows us to overcome time and look at history in terms of eternity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 384-398
Author(s):  
Zarko Cvejic

The text offers a reappraisal of Walter Benjamin?s Theses on the Philosophy of History (?ber den Begriff der Geschichte; ?On the Concept of History?) from the perspective of global politics today and its similarities with the socio-economic and political situation in Europe and the Americas during the 1920s and 30s; more specifically, the impact of crises on the erosion of trust in liberal representative democracy and the concomitant rise of mostly rightwing populist movements and their strongmen leaders, aided to a significant degree by the media, ?old? and ?new? alike. The purpose of the text is to draw lessons from Benjamin?s vision of materialist historiography for our current political predicament.


Asian Studies ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 147-171
Author(s):  
Dawid ROGACZ

The aim of my paper is to analyze the debate between Mencius and Xunzi from the perspective of their views on the nature of the historical process. The Mencian approach embraces not only elaboration on the doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven, resulting in a cyclical vision of history, but also strong idealization of the past. I will show that ren (benevolence), treated as a historical principle, could link two dimensions of his historical thinking: the moral and ontological. Xunzi rejected the possibility of the intervention of Heaven in history, however, his theory of rituals and belief in moral use of history made his philosophy of history much more conservative, embalming the idealization of the past. In short, I will look for the main common points and differences between these two major figures of Confucianism regarding their views on history, attempting to answer which beliefs could constitute a unique Confucian philosophy of history.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 323-339
Author(s):  
Jouni-Matti Kuukkanen

Abstract Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is a classic, and it is certainly not forgotten. However, an essential aspect about it has been neglected. That is, Kuhn’s Structure is a book in philosophy of history in the sense that Structure attempts gives an account of historical events, focuses on the whole of the history of science and stipulates a structure of the history of science to explain historical events. Kuhn’s book and its contribution to the debates about the progress of science and the contingency and inevitability of the history of science shows why and how philosophy of history is relevant for the history and philosophy of science. Its successful integration of historical and philosophical aspects in one account makes it worthwhile reading also for philosophers of history in the twentieth-first century. In particular, it raises the question whether the historical record can justify philosophical views and comprehensive syntheses of the past.


2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Bennett Gilbert

Abstract Current and recent philosophy of history contemplates a deep change in fundamental notions of the presence of the past. This is called breaking up time. The chief value for this change is enhancing the moral reach of historical research and writing. However, the materialist view of reality that most historians hold cannot support this approach. The origin of the notion in the thought of Walter Benjamin is suggested. I propose a neo-idealist approach called perennialism, centered on recurrent moral dilemmas and choices. This suggests a view of the relations of moral thought and ontology placed in the diachronic context that historians study.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 183
Author(s):  
Rafael Guimarães Tavares Silva

Resumo: Buscando situar o contexto alemão do final do séc. XIX e início do séc. XX, no tocante às práticas de ensino e, mais especificamente, do ensino de literatura, o presente artigo oferece considerações sobre a forma como Walter Benjamin se posiciona nesse debate. Depois de abordar de forma mais geral a produção desse arguto pensador da cultura de seu tempo, a importância fundamental de seu texto História da literatura e ciência da literatura [Literaturgeschichte und Literaturwissenschaft], de 1931, assume o primeiro plano da argumentação e oferece o material para que se sugira a radicalidade do projeto benjaminiano. Detectando uma crise cultural profunda em sua época, o estudioso sugere que um posicionamento crítico, apto a articular o passado e o presente, por meio de um estudo envolvendo História da Literatura e Crítica Literária, seria a única forma de potencializar o estudo das Letras, de modo a converter a Literatura em órganon capaz de atuar diretamente sobre a própria História.Palavras-chave: Walter Benjamin; teoria literária; crítica literária; história literária; educação.Abstract: Seeking to situate the teaching practices and especially literary teaching practices in the German context of the end of the XIXth century and beginning of the XXth, this article offers considerations on how Walter Benjamin takes a position in this debate. After a more general approach to the intellectual production of this argute thinker of his own culture and time, the fundamental importance of his text History of literature and science of literature [Literaturgeschichte und Literaturwissenschaft], from 1931, takes the foreground of the argument and offers material to suggest the radicalness of Benjamin’s project. Detecting a deep cultural crisis in his time, he suggests that a critical position, capable of articulating the past and the present, through a study involving History of Literature and Literary Criticism, would be the only way to strengthen the study of Letters, in order to transform Literature into an organon capable of acting directly on History itself.Keywords: Walter Benjamin; literary theory; literary criticism; literary history; education.


eLyra ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 95-115
Author(s):  
Paulo Eduardo Benites de Moraes ◽  
Rosana Cristina Zanelatto Santos

Walter Benjamin was one of the philosophers who most appropriately discussed the dialectics of history as a movement of extremes, that is, as an impoverished present experience before the glories of the past, which conceals, ironically, another formulation, exposed in the 9th thesis “On the concept of history”: which presents the interpretation of the allegory (ex)put in The Angelus Novus, by Paul Klee, as the “hippocratic facies of history” (Benjamin 1984), thinking this image as “the core of allegorical vision” (ibidem). Manoel de Barros, in his time, dialogues with both Klee and Benjamin, in a movement of (ex)position of episodic scenes/fragments of a nature always in a state of violence, suffering, tedium and death, despite an appearance of exuberance and abundance. In this essay, we propose to discuss/read in Barros’ poetry these poetic-allegorical constructions of nature, especially in the light of The Origin of German Tragic Drama and the thesis IX of Theses on the Philosophy of History by Walter Benjamin (1984 and 1986, respectively), as well as texts by Jeanne Marie Gagnebin (2013) and Michel Löwy (2005) on allegory in the Benjamin’s perspective.


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