Fireflies, ruins and human formation

some themes from Walter Benjamin

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18616/ce.v13i2.7397

Abstract

This essay tries to present a reflection regarding the Benjaminian notion of the “decline of experience” in modernity. The objective consists in saying that Benjamin’s work does not stay in the impasse of a nostalgia for better times, and does not decree the “disappearance of experience”. This explication is due to the necessity of not understanding this author as a conservative or reactionary philosopher, because even though facing the decline of experience Benjamin does not lament it, but seeks to overcome this situation through the political and aesthetical potential that then arises. This allows us to read him as a thinker opposite to the heralds of ruins, taking as basis the separation by Arendt, without also being a herald of progress. For that, we take as basis the critique made by Didi-Huberman to the philosopher Giorgio Agamben and to the poet-director Pier Paolo Pasolini, who adhere to a desperately apocalyptical position of the present when they decree the “death of survivals”. In conclusion, we defend that human formation needs to deal with these aspects, but without being immobilized or resigned. This discussion, started out by Benjamin makes fruitful the perspective of thinking about the defeats, the failures, and also the openings and points where even through darkness or in the ruins we might still glimpse the survivals, which honor the Benjaminian form of the dialectical image.

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Author Biography

Marcelo Ricardo Nolli, Universidade de Passo Fundo

Graduação em Psicologia pela Universidade de Passo Fundo (2018). Mestrado em Educação (2021) pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Universidade de Passo Fundo (Bolsista CAPES). Doutorando em Educação (2021-) pelo Programa de Pós-Graduação em Educação da Universidade de Passo Fundo (Bolsista CAPES). Tem interesse em: Filosofia da Educação, Psicanálise, Filosofia Alemã, Teoria Crítica da Sociedade. Tem experiência de atuação em: atendimento clínico, extensão universitária, movimentos sociais e defesa dos direitos humanos.

Published

2024-08-29