Lyne, Ian (1995) The temporality of language : Kant's legacy in the work of Martin Heidegger and Walter Benjamin. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

Contrary to the idea that there are fundamental differences between the
work of Martin Heidegger and Walter Benjamin, the thesis shows that
there exists a profound similarity in the direction of their projects, by
exploring how they took up Kant's critical legacy concerning the
temporality of language: the belonging together of language and time.
The ground of Kant's system and of the necessity of systematicity - the
three-fold synthesis which 'generates' time under the direction of
conceptuality - is elucidated via the Second Analogy and the Critique of
Teleological Judgment. It is argued that Kant's understanding of language
and time remains fixed within a circular justification of Newtonian
Science, which prevented him from taking up the critical resources of his
treatment of teleological concepts and applying it to his idea of the
critical system itself. Heidegger's and Benjamin's work may be understood
as taking up the hermeneutic circularity of Kant's philosophical system,
though freeing it from its appeal to a limited time determination. They
both develop notions of a more originary temporality in conjunction with
a linguistic phenomenology. They further allow this more critical
thinking of language and time to reflexively fall back on the writing of
philosophy itself. Their understanding of the temporality of language is
explored through the way 'translation' focuses, in each case, a thinking
of tradition and of linguistic works. The thesis rejects attempts to
separate Heidegger's early work from his later approach, and further
rejects a tendency to focus on Benjamin's style of writing in isolation
from its theoretical basis. The thesis concludes by arguing that the
work of both Heidegger and Benjamin points to a rethinking of Kant's
legacy of the necessity of system, in terms of system as the inescapable
belonging together of language and time.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > B Philosophy (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Heidegger, Martin, 1889-1976 -- Criticism and interpretation, Benjamin, Walter, 1892-1940 -- Criticism and interpretation, Kant, Immanuel, 1724-1804 -- Influence, Language and languages -- Philosophy, Time
Official Date:	January 1995
Dates:	Date Event January 1995 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Philosophy
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Benjamin, Andrew E.
Sponsors:	British Academy
Extent:	328 leaves
Language:	eng

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