Abstract

Even if it has not been so thoroughly investigated, the importance of Platonic philosophy in Benjamin’s work can hardly be argued. Numerous texts, notes and letters reveal the presence of Plato in Benjamin’s thought. But it is specially The origin of German Trauerspiel the place where Benjamin takes Plato’s philosophy most explicitly and extensively. In the “Epistemocritical Preface” –where he develops his theory of knowledge through a revindication and reinterpretation of the Platonic “doctrine of ideas”– as well as in other sections of the book, Plato appears as a fundamental source. In this context, a dialogue stands out: the Symposium. This article aims at investigating Benjamin’s reading of that dialogue, a reading which articulates the figure of a Plato that develops his philosophy as a way to oppose myth, and that allows to elevate philosophy again as a form for the exposition of truth in language.