The Concept of Experience in Neo-Kantianism and its Effect on the Early Writings of Walter Benjamin

The concept of experience which had been formed in Kant’s epistemological system, despite its importance as one of the fundamental keystones of the critical system, ironically remained neglected in the decades following his death. The rediscovery and re-establishment of Kant’s concept of experience is due to the efforts of thinkers who are generally associated with “the Neo-Kantian school”. Focusing on the work of one of the prominent figures of Neo-Kantian school, Hermann Cohen, this paper sets out to show how the Kantian experience can transcend the standard conception which is based on subject/object duality, and can reach the origin of knowledge. Following that, we will see how this originary experience motivates “the coming philosophy” which has been outlined by Walter Benjamin in his early writings in the 1910s. However, this would never mean that Benjamin simply follows the path of Neo-Kantians: As we shall see, in order to reach the origin of knowledge, Benjamin uses a historio-theological “battle plan” which is markedly different from the one used by the Neo-Kantians – and Kant himself.