L'etica del sentiero laterale

Fenomenologie della deviazione in Blumenberg, Benjamin e Bloch

Abstract

This essay approaches the topic of deviation (Umweg) in philosophy through a discussion of three prominent philosophers who used it extensively as a writing device. The general strategy is considering deviation as an in-between of an ethics of temporality, eversion and repertoirization, which brings forth a hermeneutic approach that consists in deviating the texts onto themselves. After discussing the theoretical background of the proposed interpretation through a development of Enzo Melandri’s theory of analogy, the essay proceeds with the analysis of the approach of its three protagonists. The first one is Hans Blumenberg, and his challenging writing strategy of perpetual deviations, which are here considered to constitute an “organic” style of deviation, which is connected to his anthropological theory. The second author is Walter Benjamin, proposing a superimposed reading of his work on the Trauerspiel and the shipwreck of the Passagenwerk. The last paragraph is on Ernst Bloch, whose use of the deviation has, akin to Benjamin, a soteriological quality. As one of the objectives of this essay is also proceeding according to itself, a deeper meaning of it will derive from the superposition of its own deviations, around an opaque centre, which is deliberately left out of the discussion.