Disquieting Analogies: Benjamin and Heidegger on Medieval Speculative Grammar

Abstract

This article examines Walter Benjamin's engagement with Martin Heidegger's postdoctoral thesis on the Scholastic philosophers Duns Scotus and Thomas of Erfurt. I argue that Benjamin's fragment “Wenn nach der Theorie des Duns Scotus” from the Winter of 1920–21 contains a direct response to Heidegger's thesis, marking the difference between their philosophies of language as well as a vital shift in Benjamin's critical project. After studying Heidegger's book, Benjamin abandons the plan to work on Scholastic analogies, focusing instead on allegory in Baroque mourning plays. This shift motivated Benjamin to distinguish his non‐hierarchical and anti‐anthropocentric understanding of language further from Heidegger's ontological view, which adheres, despite its non‐instrumental character, to an authoritative relationship between language and being.