Abstract

This thesis purports to show Walter Benjamin's philosophy of history to be a hermeneutical approach that is able to offer a new solution to the problem of authority and critique as it was discussed in the debate between Hans-Georg Gadamer and Jurgen Habermas. This debate focussed on the problem of the universality of hermeneutics. Gadamer, on the one side, asserts that hermeneutics is the fundamental and universal paradigm for philosophy. Habermas, on the other, denies the universality of hermeneutics and asks for a rational criterion outside of hermeneutics, using models of universal history and transcendental philosophy. ;The dissertation gives an introduction to both Walter Benjamin's biography and his philosophy of history. Subsequently, his philosophy of history is interpreted as a Messianic hermeneutics that offers a way to overcome the problems discussed by Gadamer and Habermas. This hermeneutics is Messianic in that the coming of the Messiah, as an objective of hope, is essential in it. However, neither the coming, nor the hope for it, is to be understood as a dogmatic presupposition. Rather, it is the outcome of the remembrance of past sufferings in a concrete situation of the present. Benjamin's concept sets free critical powers by bringing the present in a remembering "constellation" with the past. This "constellation" interrupts the continuum of history both in the past and the present contexts, thus making change possible. ;With regard to the universal, Benjamin takes a twofold stance. On the one hand, a universal language, or universal history, is not possible. On the other, his concept of the Messianic contains the notion of both universal history and language from the point of view of the Messianic world. ;The thesis finally offers a critical consideration of Benjamin's deploying theological elements in his philosophy of history. This deployment would require a foundation in religious practice. On the other hand, Benjamin's hesitation to perform this step is interpreted as a warning to organized religion regarding its dogmatic handling of religious rituals.