Abstract

CIFUENTES-QUINONEZ, Luis Antonio. KEYS TO THINK ABOUT THE NEED OF MEMORY: A READING OF W. BENJAMIN'S SECOND THESIS ON HISTORY. Univ. philos. [online]. 2018, vol.35, n.71, pp.77-111. ISSN 0120-5323.  https://doi.org/10.11144/javeriana.uph35-71.epnm.

This paper is an outline of some ways that lead us to think about the need of memory, inherent to the experience of the present. We will work around three thematic lines within the field of philosophy of history: first, the relation between the past and our present; second, the problem of the personal disposition of the subject of historical knowledge and his inevitable belonging to the present at the level of action; and the sense of a possible historical experience where the individual and the collective intersect each other, in relation to the question of establishing whether it is appropriate to make an exhaustive remembrance of those who died because of the armed conflict in Colombia. With this purpose, we will point out to a series of elements drawn from Benjamin's philosophy of memory so as to rehearse some possible connections with the philoso phies of forgetfulness, remembrance and memory proposed by Nietzsche and Bergson. Thus, we seek to establish the reality of the past that is based on the virtual existence of recollection and, from there, to determine the ability of the latter to be updated in the form of vital forces, committed to making a future.

Keywords : Benjamin; history; memory; remembrance; virtual; experience.

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