NATURRECHT ALS REVOLUTIONÄRE GEWALT? SPINOZA UND BENJAMIN – EINE KREUZLEKTÜRE

Abstract

Recent interpretations have shown that the cryptic reference to Spinoza’s doctrine of natural law in Benjamin’s “Zur Kritik der Gewalt” conceals a deeper convergence between the two thinkers. Both Spinoza and Benjamin take the position that no constituted legal order (potestas) can completely neutralize the violence that constitutes it (potentia). In this article, we also show that Benjamin’s “Der Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels” demonstrates the same precariousness of the sovereign (against Carl Schmitt) as Spinoza’s critique of monarchical regimes in the “Tractatus Politicus”. The nonneutralized violence that challenges every constituted sovereignty can, however, take on a “lawdestroying” form in Benjamin's work. The article concludes with the question of whether such a “destitution of the law” can also be found in Spinoza.