The Possibility of a Holistic Social Theory in the Context of Walter Benjamin's "Art" and "History" Conceptions

Abstract

In this paper, Walter Benjamin’s thoughts are investigated in the base of his understandings of art and history. And in this investigation it is addressed his thoughts of art and history with their correlations with Horkheimer and Adorno’s works. The method of this paper is a kind of philosophical ‘following-a-trace” and it is used for revealing the unity of multitude, which is the main characteristic of Benjamin’s works. For his commentators, the multiplicity in his thoughts comes from Marxism and theology but this is not a kind of eclecticism. Benjamin’s critical thinking converts this multiplicity to an unity. And the question rise from this point: Is this understanding about art and history a kind of social theory which integrates the social sciences and humanities? This philosophical track will reveal a position for the social sciences in the presence of Two Cultures debate.