Walter Benjamin on Experience and History

By focusing on the development of Benjamin's thinking since the beginning of his intellectual career, especially during the time he was under the direct influence of Kant's philosophy, we can grasp a fundamental notion -- experience. This concept, from Benjamin's mature work, is one of the central categories here. Also examined is his last work "On the Concept of History", one of the most tangled and complex pieces he ever wrote, devoted to the exploration of the question of concrete praxis. Therefore, diagnosis (as explored in his notions about experience) and praxis (as in the theses "On the Concept of History") stand as models for the elaboration of his social theories.