Historical Understanding and Political Ideals: Kant and Benj

Abstract

Professor of Philosophy Richard Eldridge takes up the following questions in this talk: 1) How do historical narratives explain events and provide understanding? 2) What is the role of political ideals in the framing of historical narratives? 3) How, for both Kant and Benjamin, does historical narrative play an essential role in furthering the task of (critical) philosophy? 4) What are the specific, opposed conceptions of historical understanding and ideal political life held by Kant and Benjamin