The ends of law: Walter Benjamin's conception of history.

摘要

In this thesis, I explicate Walter Benjamin's philosophy of history, as presented in his late essay "On the Concept of History". I argue that Benjamin recognizes that the motivation of traditional, narrative philosophies of history lies in an experience of historical meaninglessness. Unfortunately, as a remedy for this experience of meaninglessness, narrative philosophies of histories ultimately perform an ideological legitimating function with respect to oppressive State structures, which serve as the subjects of the philosophy of history. Insofar as the State is both oppressive and constitutive of history, Benjamin considers the "end of history" to be the end of the State structure. In order to legitimate the revolutionary action that would bring about this "end of history" Benjamin analyzes the pre-narrative awareness of the past, given in "images" and "fragments," and discovers that the past exerts a normative force capable of providing such legitimation.