History of survivors and history as counter-time. The philosophy of history according to W. Benjamin and E. Levinas

This text on the concept of the philosophy of history in the works of Walter Benjamin and Emmanuel Levinas aim to reread a few excerpts from Totalité et Infini (Totality and Infinity) by the French philosopher and from Über den Begriff der Geschichte (On the Concept of History) by the German philosopher, and to compare those excerpts that echo and unexpectedly reference one another so as to demonstrate how these two philosophers carried out, in distinct ways that are similar, a radical shift of focus concerning historical reflections, in which both paid particular attention to singularity at the expense of universality in interpreting history or the philosophy of history. Despite their distinct approaches and backgrounds as Jewish intellectuals, as well as the different time periods in which they lived (Benjamin, until the outbreak of World War II, while Levinas passed away during the late twentieth century), their conclusions on the theme of history are strikingly similar – conclusions, or openings that may arouse a certain interest in reinterpreting this past century and the one that has just begun. In fact, for both philosophers, who never met, the inability of the majority of historians and historiographers to understand the singularity of historical events and above all to consider the singularity of those who are subject to their course and progress, depends on the ideal of abstract universality. The “tyranny of the universal,” according to a very appropriate expression of Levinas, or rather, the impossibility, on the part of most, to think that only that which cannot be traced back to the universal is worthy of being taken into consideration, depends on the fact that this “tyranny” dominates not only philosophical thought in general, but also that which concerns us even more directly in this relationship, as well as from my point of view, the notion of history and historiography.