Toward the Critique of Violence: A Critical Edition

Description

Marking the centenary of Walter Benjamin's immensely influential essay, "Toward the Critique of Violence," this critical edition presents readers with an altogether new, fully annotated translation of a work that is widely recognized as a classic of modern political theory. The volume includes twenty-one notes and fragments by Benjamin along with passages from all of the contemporaneous texts to which his essay refers. Readers thus encounter for the first time in English provocative arguments about law and violence advanced by Hermann Cohen, Kurt Hiller, Erich Unger, and Emil Lederer. A new translation of selections from Georges Sorel's Reflections on Violence further illuminates Benjamin's critical program. The volume also includes, for the first time in any language, a bibliography Benjamin drafted for the expansion of the essay and the development of a corresponding philosophy of law. An extensive introduction and afterword provide additional context. With its challenging argument concerning violence, law, and justice-which addresses such topical matters as police violence, the death penalty, and the ambiguous force of religion-Benjamin's work is as important today as it was upon its publication in Weimar Germany a century ago. Cover Contents Note on the Translation of Benjamin’s Writings Acknowledgments Abbreviations and Conventions INTRODUCTION by Peter Fenves “Toward the Critique of Violence” by Walter Benjamin ASSOCIATED NOTES AND FRAGMENTS 1. Notes toward a Work on the Category of Justice 2. Vivification and Violence 3. From “Life and Violence” 4. On Morality 5. All Unconditionality of the Will Leads to Evil 6. On Kantian Ethics 7. The Spontaneity of the I 8. Ethics, Applied to History 9. Modes of History 10. Methodical Modes of History 11. Death 12. As Many Pagan Religions, So Many Natural Concepts of Guilt 13. On the Problem of Physiognomy and Prediction 14. The Meaning of Time in the Moral World 15. 1) World and Time 16. Morality, Ethics 17. The Right to Apply Force / Use Violence 18. Capitalism as Religion 19. Notes on “Objective Mendacity” I 20. Notes toward a Work on Lying II 21. Schemata for the Psychophysical Problem 22. Literature for a More Fully Developed Critique of Violence and Philosophy of Law Literatur zu einer ausgeführteren Kritik der Gewalt und zur Rechtsphilosophie AFTERWORD: Toward Another Critique of Violence by Julia Ng Hermann Cohen, Ethics of Pure Will Translator’s Preface Excerpt, “Self-Responsibility” Kurt Hiller, “Anti-Cain: A Postscript to Rudolf Leonhard’s ‘Our Final Battle against Weapons’” Translator’s Preface Essay Georges Sorel, Reflections on Violence Translator’s Preface Excerpts Erich Unger, from Politics and Metaphysics Translator’s Preface Excerpts Emil Lederer, “Sociology of Violence: A Contribution to the Theory of Social- Formative Forces” Translator’s Preface Essay Glossary Notes Note on the Translators Index A B C D E F G H J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Z