El método es una digresión. Una lectura benjaminiana de Goethe

Abstract

Benjamin himself tells us that reading Simmel’s work on the concept of truth in Goethe helped him realise that the concept of origin proposed in his book on Trauerspiel was a transposition of the Goethean concept of original phenomenon. To argue how economical facts can become original phenomena, Benjamin brings in an analogy with Goethe’s concept of the metamorphosis of plants. Thus, here, we try to demonstrate that understanding what philosophy is in Benjamin implies a threshold experience in the form of leap, discontinuity, interruption, renunciation, dissipation, obedience and metamorphosis, whose supreme, concise and enigmatic formulation is as follows: “Method is a detour” [Methode is Umweg]. Some elements from Goethe’s morphological thought will permit the establishment of a constellation of affinities, something quite useful for the interpretation of this enigma.