On Walter Benjamin’s Political Philosophy

As an implied but fundamental dimension of Benjamin’s thoughts, politics is usedfor a thorough study on him in the thesis，in which concepts, images and systems ofBenjamin’s political philosophy embedded in his theological, aesthetic and historicaltheories are explored, political intention expressed in the interpretations of language,violence, justice, ethics, time and revolution is revealed and significances andcontributions of understanding Marxist conception of history and revolution from theperspective of messianic redemption are interpreted.As the messianic context of theocracy,“concrete totality of experience” mainlycontains language experience and religion experience, the former is used to presentdivine origin of history and the latter to interpret messianic redemption of the world. InBenjamin’ view, however, theocracy does not have political significance, so he claimspolitical method of nihilism and ethical program of anarchism. In Critique of Violence,which is the concretization and actualization of his early salvation thoughts, politicalview of nihilism is abandoned and significance of violence in messianic redemption isemphasized. The positive role of historical violence is not admitted by Benjamin, andtherefore divine violence is used to confront and terminate it. The above research onviolence presents the view of time in messianic event, which points out historicalphilosophy’s political orientation. Consequently, by introducing the dimension ofhistory and time in his redemption, Benjamin further extends this politics of time toaesthetics, and comes to realize the identity between political evolution and aestheticevolution in view of temporalized politics. Messianic time endows Benjamin withhistorical and ethical dimension, by which Benjamin explores the interaction betweenMessiah and Marx’s historicism and critique of capitalism. Politicalization of time andtemporalization of politics provide an opportunity for Benjamin to access Marxism, hebegins to interpret Marxist conception of history and revolution from the perspective ofmessianic idea of Judaism.Benjamin’s political philosophy thoughts help us with exploring political and ethical connotation of religion in the process of rationalization and modernization. Thecombination of messianic idea with Marxism, or the practice of exploring messianicdimension from Marxism enriches Marxist value objective and cultural connotation, soas to develop the most vigorous and indeterminist elements of Marxism. Muchdifficulty exists in the messianic revolutionary practice, but the diversity ofinterpretation can undoubtedly endow Marxism with rich connotation and morepossibilities.