Political aspects in Hans Blumenberg’s philosophy

Abstract

The scientific community in the humanities agrees that the work of the German post-war philosopher Hans Blumenberg is fascinating, compelling and inspiring, although the texts remain to some extent hard to understand. His extensive exchange with authors like Carl Schmitt, Jacob Taubes or Hannah Arendt show the often forgotten and sometimes systematically hidden political aspects of his philosophy. The theory of modernity, the theory of myth and of course his metaphorology are the main areas of debate which can be checked for their political implications and ramifications. However, the a priori exclusion of republican arguments and ideas points to a systematic problem in Blumenberg’s thought. All his thinking remains in the framework of what has been called “subject-philosophy”, it seems. While his early publications allowed a certain critique of ideology (from the perspective of metaphorology), this gesture almost disappears in his later writings. It is basically the single subject which works on myth, which seems to project “significance” (Bedeutsamkeit) into the world, which makes sense of his life in anecdotes. However, human self-assertion is always a common project, an inherited technique which creates not only myths but also institutions and law. The political aspects in Blumenberg’s work therefore also make transparent the limitations of his thought.