Denkbild

November 4, 2015 8:06 PM

Walter Benjamin’s legacy, 75 years on : The First Pop Philosopher

In praise of dirty, sexy cities: the urban world according to Walter Benjamin, "all the way from gare du nord to the beverly laurel cafe."

Radio and Child: Walter Benjamin as Broadcaster by Brían Hanrahan

All a part of Benjamedia

posted by the man of twists and turns (10 comments total)

The "first pop philosopher" link is very strange.

1) "You won’t find his works being taught or studied in the philosophy departments of many British or American universities." This is false. Philosophers take him seriously, especially in continental philosophy and analytic aesthetics. Here's his lengthy entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

2) I'm pretty sure the first pop philosopher in the Western tradition was Socrates.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 9:53 PM on November 4, 2015 [4 favorites]

If you're the odd sort of person who might take pleasure in a rigorous tracing of Benjamin's writings on photography as they reveal themselves — clandestinely, but with absolute clarity once the keys are revealed — in Barthes' work, you'll probably enjoy reading this.
posted by Wolof at 10:40 PM on November 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

"Pop philosophy" is a term that presumes most philosophy isn't for the populace...which kinda defeats the point of philosophy in the first place, no?
posted by Doleful Creature at 10:43 PM on November 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

I would say that you won't find him in many Anglo-American departments, and that he's important in continental and analytic aesthetics. Or at least the two are consistent.
posted by persona au gratin at 11:20 PM on November 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

I suppose it's true that there are many Anglo-american departments which teach neither continental philosophy nor aesthetics (not even the Anglo-american flavor), not in a serious way. That's not a problem related to Benjamin, it's a widespread failure to address authors and issues which cannot be responsibly ignored.

Places that fail to teach Benjamin at all may also be failing to teach Foucault, so at least Benjamin's in good company.
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 11:33 PM on November 4, 2015

I don't know from philosophy but he was popular as heck when I did English. I had three or four courses where "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" was assigned reading.
posted by juv3nal at 11:45 PM on November 4, 2015

I have only one thought relating to "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."

Benjamin claims that recorded music loses its aura. I claim that Cage's 4'3" is entirely aura.
posted by leibniz at 1:10 AM on November 5, 2015

I'm just increasingly ignoring any piece of writing that begins with analytic philosophy bashing. It usually pays off. Benjamin seems plenty interesting as a thinker without starting a fight over what is and is not "philosophy".
posted by thelonius at 1:58 AM on November 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Do you see a lot of that? I feel like I see a lot more "anything that's not analytic philosophy isn't real philosophy/Continental philosophy is meaningless gibberish devoid of logic and rigor".
posted by Sangermaine at 10:39 AM on November 5, 2015

I think "pop philosophy" is a bit of a derail in this context; its clearly a reference to Benjamin's analysis of mass entertainment - of which he and the Frankfurt School more generally, especially Marcuse and Adorno , were arguably the first.

Prior to the twentieth C (and roughly when they started writing) mass entertainment in the forms of radio, widespread literacy, international movies etc didn't really exist. This is a pretty uncontroversial and well-established take in relation to Benjamin.
posted by smoke at 2:41 PM on November 5, 2015