Technique, phantasmagoria, origin: deepening the Benjamin's model of Critical Theory

• Grant number: 14/26558-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: March 02, 2015
• End date: September 01, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Ricardo Ribeiro Terra
• Grantee: Fernando Araujo Del Lama
• Supervisor: Daniel Weidner
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Humboldt University, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 13/16938-8 - Decline of experience, memory and redemption: aspects of Walter Benjamin's model of critical theory, BP.MS

Abstract

We intend to develop at this research internship complementary aspects related to topics covered in our main project, such as the ambivalences in Benjamin's diagnosis regarding the technique, the specificity of the notion of phantasmagoria within the conceptual constellation proposed by him and the conception of origin (Ursprung) in the context of his reflections in the 30s. This set of issues, with which we aim to continue the research, immediately follows from the partial results obtained during its early progress. We hope this complementary investigation may assist in illumination of the more general problematic that guide this research, namely, to think the Benjamin's themes of decline of experience, memory and redemption through the prism of a diagnosis of the times and a prognosis with political action prescriptions based on the identification of emancipatory or blocking to the emancipation trends, allowing the expansion of the scope of such issues, as well as the refinement of the analysis and hence the enrichment of research as a whole. (AU)