The Messianic Reduction: Walter Benjamin and the Shape of Time (Meridian: Crossing Aesthetics) by Peter Fenves

by Peter Fenves

The Messianic Reduction is a groundbreaking study of Walter Benjamin's thought. Fenves places Benjamin's early writings in the context of contemporaneous philosophy, with particular attention to the work of Bergson, Cohen, Husserl, Frege, and Heidegger. By concentrating on a neglected dimension of Benjamin's friendship with Gershom Scholem, who was a student of mathematics before he became a scholar of Jewish mysticism, Fenves shows how mathematical research informs Benjamin's reflections on the problem of historical time. In order to capture the character of Benjamin's "entrance" into the phenomenological school, the book includes a thorough analysis of two early texts he wrote under the title of "The Rainbow," translated here for the first time. In its final chapters, the book works out Benjamin's deep and abiding engagement with Kantian critique, including Benjamin's discovery of the political counterpart to the categorical imperative in the idea of "pure violence."

Genres: Philosophy

Paperback

First published December 14, 2010

About the author

Peter Fenves is Joan and Sarepta Harrison Professor of Literature, Professor of German, Comparative Literary Studies, and Jewish Studies, and Adjunct Professor of Philosophy, Political Science, and English at Northwestern University. His most recent book is Late Kant: Towards Another Law of the Earth (2003).

Reviews

[Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the first third of this book. A very interesting work which uncovers Benjamin’s relationship to Phenomenology, and Benjamin’s aesthetic appropriation of Husserl’s reduction. The central thesis is that when one finally can attain proximity to a reduction (in actuality), one would see things in their...form[?]. Therein lies a tension toward the messianic.

The book carefully goes through the development of Benjamin’s thought and how he reaches his conclusions. It goes through his attempts to enter the Phenomenological school and crafting theories of language, trying to solve central phenomenological problems related to meaning and word.

A very complicated and interesting text. I probably didn’t explain it well, so I encourage you to take a look at it.

[Filip Wijnings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Twee hypotheses die dit boek versterkt hebben:
1) Een boek kan te vol staan met ideeën
2) Er zat iets in het water in Duitsland tussen 1900-1920

[André Sette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Livro difícil. Walter Benjamin encontra Husserl e a conversa é desconfortável. Confesso que não entendi a tese central do livro tão bem quanto gostaria – a ponto de conseguir formulá-la com palavras diferentes das do autor – mas o livro é repleto de análises penetrantes e que marcam quem as adentra (com bastante dificuldade). Certamente me marcou.