História e política no pensamento de Walter Benjamin

Abstract

In this paper, we assume that the problems surrounding philosophy of history, in Walter Benjamin, guide his political view. That being said, our goal is to relate Benjamin’s philosophy of history to his political view, while he was in Germany facing Hitler’s growing fascism. In other words, we intend to analyze how his new approach on history leads Benjamin to be pessimistic towards the political views of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. For this intent, we focus on his works “On the concept of history” and “Theological-Political Fragment”. Hence, we intend to explain how Benjamin still holds out the possibility of a revolution, despite the fact that he was conceiving a pessimistic perspective on history. In short, we intend to analyze how the concept of history in Benjamin and the event of a revolution result in the end of history.