In this project, Ricardo Vargas will be comparing Walter Benjamin’s and Richard Rorty’s conception of the intellectual and the role they believe they should play in society. Although both authors argue intellectuals should be in the crux of social issues, Walter Benjamin takes his ideas one step further than Rorty. Rorty and contemporaries can learn from Benjamin’s vision that the intellectual/writer need not be a position that is distinct from the rest of society but is a role anyone can step into at any given time. Taking Benjamin’s ideas into modern America can make this nation that proclaims itself to be the champion of democracy more democratic.
The German-Jewish scholar Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) wore many hats: philosopher, translator, cultural critic, historian. During the course of his life Benjamin witnessed the rise of fascism in Germany and was forced into exile in 1933. After fleeing from the Nazi invasion of France with the hope of making his way to America, Benjamin committed suicide at the Spanish-French border in 1940. Because of his many interests Benjamin's work has enjoyed an international and multidisciplinary reception, influencing a wide range of disciplines including philosophy, film and media studies, cultural studies, literary theory and philology. In an interdisciplinary survey course taught by Frank Voigt and PhD-candidate Everet Smith (cross-listed with the Departments of Philosophy, Comparative Literature, and Jewish Studies) students could produce a podcast episode as their final project. Anna Pomahac and Ricardo Vargas, two philosophy students, did so. Their podcast episodes are both wonderful introductions and deep dives into Benjamin’s thinking on Brecht’s "Epic Theater" and the role of intellectuals in society.
Bibliography
Benjamin, Walter, et al. “Left-Wing Melancholy.” Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings Volume 2, Part 2, vol. 2, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 2005, pp. 423-427.
Benjamin, Walter, et al. “The Author as Producer.” Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings Volume 2, Part 2, vol. 2, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 2005, pp. 768–782.
Benjamin, Walter, et al. “The Life of Students.” Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings Volume 1, vol. 1, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, 2005, pp. 37–47.
Kwiek, Marek. “Agents, Spectators, and Social Hope: Richard Rorty and American Intellectuals.”
Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory, no. 101, 2003, pp. 25–48. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41802222.
Rorty, Richard. Achieving Our Country: Leftist Thought in Twentieth-Century America. Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1998.