FU Berlin Digitale Dissertation
Eric L. Jacobson : Metaphysics of the profane the political theology W. Benjamin and G. Scholem Metaphysik des Profanen
|Abstract| |Table of Contents| |More Information|

Abstract ">Walter Benjamin attests to Gershom Scholem in a rather emphatic moment in 1915 that if he should ever have a philosophy of his own, it would be a philosophy of Judaism. In many ways, this statement forms the basis of a discussion on three main ideas which would capture the imagination of the authors: on Messianism, language and justice. Following along the lines of this tripartite division, the dissertation is divided into three sections reflecting the original tone of the authors' dialogue. The first section is perhaps the most helpful for readers interested in Benjamin's early writings, for it seeks to explain many of the early texts in the context of this pursuit of the Messianic in history. The reconstruction of Benjamin's Messianism is based largely on an early text from 1921 entitled the Theological-Political Fragment. This is followed by more narrative section in which Benjamin's movement toward abstract, political and theological speculation is brought together with Scholem's own Messianic politics and a nihilism regarding the affairs of Europe. These two dimension ? a utopian, anarchist theological politics and a nihilism regarding worldly affairs ? converge when the authors are finally reunited in Muri, Switzerland in 1917-18 at the height of the First World War. This is followed by a broader portrayal of Scholem, the categories of his theological politics and the metamorphosis this politics undergoes.

Table of Contents Download the whole PhDthesis as a zip-tar file or as zip-File For download in PDF format click the chapter title Title Deutsche Zusammenfassung and Introduction 1 The Messianic State: does the Messiah initiate or consummate? 30 The division of the Holy and Profane 38 The Messianic Intensity of Happiness 44 Tragic Devotion 49 Restitutio in Integrum and immortality 57 Nihilism 63 The theological politics of Gershom Scholem 66 Tradition and anarchism 68 Zion: anarchist praxis or metaphor 71 A programmatic Torah 75 Revolutionary nihilism 78 Cataclysmic anarchism 82 Critical anarchism 93 On the origins of language and the true name of things 98 Metaphor of the Divine 103 The Magic of the inexpressible in language 108 Symbolic revelation 114 Magic and the divine word 118 Reception as translation 124 Sign and Symbol 128 Judgment 130 Jewish linguistic theory and christian Kabbalah 133 Gershom Scholem and the name of God: "On language as such reconsidered" 143 Toward a structure of symbolic mysticism 146 The creating word and the unpronouncable name 150 The existence of matter and magic in the Torah and its letters 154 Grammarians of the name 158 Micro-lingustic speculation 161 The metaphysics of the divine name, ist substance and attributes 165 A micro-linguistic science of prophecy 169 On a Mesianic conception of language 174 A redemptive conception of justice 176 Theses of the concept of justice 195 Prophetic justice 199 Judaism and revolution 209 Judgment and violence 215 Punishment and fate 223 Divine postponement and the question of violence 238 The righteous, the pious, the scholar 243 Bibliography 253

More Information:
Online available:	http://www.diss.fu-berlin.de/2002/229/indexe.html
Language of PhDThesis:	english
Keywords:	dissertation, jacobson, juedische, philosophie
DNB-Sachgruppe:	10 Philosophie
Date of disputation:	24-Jun-1999
PhDThesis from:	Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften, Freie Universität Berlin
First Referee:	Prof. Dr. Joseph Dan
Second Referee:	Prof. Dr. Dietrich Böhler
Contact (Author):	E.Jacobson@sussex.ac.uk
Contact (Advisor):	dan@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Date created:	07-Nov-2002
Date available:	08-Nov-2002

 

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