PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY

Author: SOSA GONZALEZ JULIO CESAR.
Year: 2005.
University: PONTIFICIA COMILLAS [www.upcomillas.es].
Place of defense: FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS HUMANAS Y SOCIALES.
Place of preparation: FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS HUMANAS Y SOCIALES.

Summary: This doctoral work provides a new approach to the idea of memory in the work of Walter Benjamin, a notion that appears not only in his last letter, "thesis philosophy of history", but this is a category in trials aesthetic Benjamin developed over his intellectual career. For this reason, this doctoral work has not lost sight of the horizon and finished radicalized offered a thesis, but is focused on examining how these fagmentarias conclusions reached through the journey of three stages, in chapters of this thesis are represented by Benjamin reflections produced some works of Proust, Kafka and Baudelaire. These three names serve as a warning about the direction of aesthetic analysis benjaminiano about memory. The thesis is divided into five chapters. Chapter I provides an overview of life intelectural Benjamin and the historical context in which he carried out his work. Chapters II and III form a unity: in the first one anlaliza the idea of memory (die Erinnerung) in the writings of Benjamin on Marcel Proust and the second explores the idea of forgetting (die Vergessenheit) in the comments of Walter Benjamin on the stories of Franz Kafka. Chapter IV is designed as a synthesis between the idea of remembrance and forgetfulness, taken within a framework of Benjamin's own intellectual maturity to interpret the poetry of Charles Baudelaire. There, the idea of memory is elevated to the field of historical debate. Finally, Chapter V has stockpiles of the characteristics of the concept of memory in Benjamin studied along the entire thesis, showing now thinking of Benjamin through the interpretation of two cases in the recent history of Central America to the light categories benjaminianas.

Author: OTÓN CATALÁN JOSEP.
Year: 2005.
University: BARCELONA [www.ub.es].
Place of defense: FACULTAD DE FORMACIÓN DEL PROFESORADO.
Place of preparation: FACULTAD DE FORMACIÓN DEL PROFESORADO.

Summary: Simone Weil (1909-1943) is well known for his political commitment and its metaphysical reflection, however shortage of studies on its pedagogical thinking. This thesis is questioning the possible totalitarian character of the defense of the "nation" and "history" made by the author in his later writings, especially in L'Enracinement. This issue is of great importance for professionals in the teaching of social sciences, as these concepts are likely to be instrumentalizados easily as a tool for political indoctrination. First, this thesis examines the characteristics of totalitarianism as Simone Weil. In the opinion of this author, totalitarianism is a way of functioning of society that is not unique to the European fascisms the years 30 and 40, but similar mechanisms can be found in other political systems, like the Roman Empire or the State modern, and organizations such as the work at the factory, political parties or the Church. For Weil, the essential feature of totalitarianism is the absolutizing of the group to which the individual is required to submit becoming a piece of machinery without social ability to think for itself. Moreover, according to Weil, totalistarismo is based on a model of history unidirectional sharply lamarckiano. This model, based on the idea of progress, interprets the events of the past from the tenets of the present political regime, and posed a future irreversible which the individual is required to submit. Weil's work are examples of this historical determinism referring to nationalism, Christianity and Marxism. The second part of the thesis discusses L'Enracinement, a trial of Simone Weil year 1943 in exile in London. In this work, Weil attributed the low resistance during the Nazi invasion of the lack of roots of the French people. For this reason, Weil defends the need for the homeland and tradition. However, L'Enracinement and other writings from the same period, this group advocates Thinking not as an end in itself but as a means to posiblite growth of individuals by providing the necessary food, as do roots of plants. Thus, while defending the nation, also shows its relative character. Also, Weil advocates a philosophy of gracious kind of Darwinian story, based on criticism of the idea of progress. In this sense, thinking weiliano is comparable to some tenets of Postmodernism. For Weil, the future is not predetermined through a historical scheme inflexible, but that is a project that must be contributing from the thought and freedom. In turn the past is a source of inspiration that nourishes the individual because he makes contact with what is real. The third part of the thesis is devoted to teaching thinking Weil, in particular, the implications of his reflection on the Teaching of the Social Sciences and historical and cultural heritage. Thus, we analyze the mechanisms through which the teaching of history can become an instrument in the service of totalitarian regimes. In addition, it is argued, since the postulates weilianos, on the necessity of the study of social sciences. Thus, the thought of Simone Weil serves as a philosophical foundation for the teaching of history and for the dissemination of this matter through interventions museum. Specifically developed four implications of the thought of Weil in the teaching of history: the dignity of the individual, social emancipation, national identity and multicultural coexistence. The conclusion of this thesis is that the defense of the homeland and tradition in the thinking of the last Weil No 8 represents 2bf a turn conservative or reactionary, but this author assumes that the value of collective and history -conceptos fundamental to totalitarianism - but disables its ability oppressing the aotorgales a new meaning. Thus, Simone Weil does not surrender to totalitarianism, but it deconstructs.