Abstract

The goal of this article is to examine the incardination of the critical notion "limit of reason" and the dialectical notion "threshold" within the framework of Walter Benjamin's philosophy. To this end, in the first place, this article investigates Benjamin's determination of rational limits according to the correlation between the weakening of the mimetic experience and the instrumentalization of language. Then, based on an analysis of the dialectic of the media, it indicates why Benjamin's philosophy can be conceived as the attempt to dialectically transform the "limits of reason" into "thresholds" open to another rational experience. In this way, it is hoped to show one aspect of Walter Benjamin's thought: the updating of the critique of reason as one of the foundations of his program for a coming philosophy.