Margini intorno al vuoto. Su Walter Benjamin e Jacques Derrida

The research project starts from the observation of a void at the center of the philosophical systems of some of the major Jewish thinkers of the twentieth century: the works of Benjamin and Derrida, but also Freud, Kafka and Scholem, reckon with the death of the father, the powerlessness of the sovereign, the incomprehensibility of the law, the absence of God and the unutterability of His name. Driven by the belief that all reasoning is reversible into its opposite, the work seeks to investigate the various paradoxes that hopelessly undermine the linearity and coherence of metaphysical concepts: fatherhood is for Freud so respected as to be too obtrusive, sovereignty is for Derrida so absolute that it cannot rule, law is for Kafka so general as to be inapplicable, theology is for Benjamin so essential as to be neglected, and divine language is for Scholem so meaningful as to remain silent. The thesis aims to show the various consequences arising from these basic negative data: the inaccessibility of a simple truth leads to the multiplication of identities, the subversion of power relations, the temporal dilation, the attachment to worldly reality, and the proliferation of representations. Therefore, in this research project, conceptual characters proliferate, positions of strength and weakness constantly switch places, issues are piled up in order not to immediately reach the conclusion, salvation is sought in small things, and special attention is paid to linguistic issues. These are the effects of the crisis at the core of thought as they unfold at its margins.