We answer listener emails and/or reflect on what secondary sources we use, anarchism, having on as guests adherents of the philosophy we’re discussing, which reading that we’ve covered that’s pleasantly surprised each of us the most, and how to front-load our episodes so that non-paying listeners are more OK with only hearing part one.
Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Part Two)
Continuing on Benjamin’s “Critique of Violence” (1921).
Mark, Wes, and Seth keep trying to figure out this difficult essay. Is Benjamin really advocating a workers’ revolution to end the state, or just reflecting on a hypothetical to explore the limits of the concept of violence?
According to Judith Butler’s interpretation of the essay, the takeaway is the alternative to motivation through force, i.e. speech, which Benjamin (in other essays) gives some religious significance, but the way he actually concludes the essay is in a discussion of “divine violence” as somehow transcending means-end analysis and the corruption inherent in violence.
Begin with part one or get the full, ad-free Citizen Edition. Please support PEL!
End song: “Jericho” from hackedepiciotto, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #116.
Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a free month of unlimited learning with The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.
Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Part One)
On “Critique of Violence” (1921). What is violence? Benjamin gives us a taxonomy: law-creating, law-preserving, mythological, and divine. Then he deconstructs his own distinctions to demonstrate that all state power is rotten through its being founded on and continually re-established by violence or the threat of it.
Don’t wait for part two. Get the full ad-free Citizen Edition now. Please support PEL!
Sponsor: Visit thegreatcoursesplus.com/PEL for a free month of unlimited learning with The Great Courses Plus Video Learning Service.
Ep. 237: Walter Benjamin Analyzes Violence (Citizen Edition)
On “Critique of Violence” (1921). What is violence? Benjamin gives us a taxonomy: law-creating, law-preserving, mythological, and divine. Then he deconstructs his own distinctions to demonstrate that all state power is rotten through its being founded on and continually re-established by violence or the threat of it.
End song: “Jericho” from hackedepiciotto, as interviewed on Nakedly Examined Music #116.