Histoire et messianisme: Benjamin et Levinas pensent le Jugement Dernier

Abstract

This article deals with the philosophy of history that emerges from Totalité et Infini, by Emmanuel Levinas, and the thesis of Sur le concept d’histoire, by Walter Benjamin. Both these authors reach the same conclusions indipendently. In their opinion, official history is created by « winners » and express the « winners’s point of view ». As a counterpart to such a history, Benjamin and Levinas propose another concept of history and temporality: that of the defeated and overwhelmed people. In this philosophy of history the authors offer to these the chance to express themselves and delineate a particular concept of the messianic era.