| Summary: | This reading of the ‘Erkenntnis-kritische Vorrede’ to the Ursprungdes deutsches Trauerspiels attempts to determine the way in which Benjamin carries out, in the theory of ideas sketched in that text, what he later called a ‘transposition’ of Goethe’s concept of the Urphänomen. A comparison with some of Goethe’s naturwissenschaftliche Schriften suggests that both authors suggest a way of thinking the relation between the concepts of truth and totality, by means of a confrontation and forceful manipulation of distinctions introduced in Kant’s critical philosophy. In this sense, their logical and epistemological sketches can be read as markers for the inaugural and closing moments of the project of German idealism.
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