Walter Benjamin and the idea of natural history

"In this incisive new work, Eli Friedlander demonstrates that Walter Benjamin's entire corpus, from early to late, comprises a rigorous and sustained philosophical questioning of how human beings belong to nature. Across seemingly heterogeneous writings, Friedlander argues, Benjamin consis...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Friedlander, Eli 1960- (Author)
Format: Print Book
Language:English
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WorldCat: WorldCat
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Published: Stanford, California Stanford University Press [2024]
In:Year: 2024
Series/Journal:Cultural memory in the present
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Benjamin, Walter 1892-1940 / Environmental psychology / Nature (Motif) / Philosophy / Philosophy of language
Further subjects:B Natural History Philosophy
B Benjamin, Walter (1892-1940)
B Environmental psychology
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:"In this incisive new work, Eli Friedlander demonstrates that Walter Benjamin's entire corpus, from early to late, comprises a rigorous and sustained philosophical questioning of how human beings belong to nature. Across seemingly heterogeneous writings, Friedlander argues, Benjamin consistently explores what the natural in the human comes to, that is, how nature is transformed, actualized, redeemed, and overcome in human existence. The book progresses gradually from Benjamin's philosophically fundamental writings on language and nature to his Goethean empiricism, from the presentation of ideas to the primal history of the Paris arcades. Friedlander's careful analysis brings out how the idea of natural history inflects Benjamin's conception of the work of art and its critique, his diagnosis of the mythical violence of the legal order, his account of the body and of action, of material culture and technology, as well as his unique vision of historical materialism. Featuring revelatory new readings of Benjamin's major works that differ, sometimes dramatically, from prevailing interpretations, this book reveals the internal coherence and philosophical force of Benjamin's thought"--
Item Description:Includes bibliographical references and index
ISBN:1503636550