ABSTRACT
In the fulfilment of a childhood wish or of the collective aspirations behind the ‘dream visions’ of the nineteenth century, the past is redeemed in experience. The idea of the redemption of a past moment in experience receives different formulations in Benjamin’s writing depending on the context, but in all of these the notion of meaning plays a fundamental role. This chapter considers Benjamin’s treatment of the topic of meaning in his writing on similitude and examines how this approach connects with his conception of historical knowledge. The chapter also compares his writing on the topic with the phenomenological frame of the figure/background distinction used by Niklas Luhmann. The comparison with the phenomenological conception of meaning underlines the peculiarities of Benjamin’s approach. It is argued that this approach is grounded in his theory of knowledge as experience. Meaning is semantic fulfilment, whose paradigm is Adamic name language. The ‘names’ articulate the (linguistic) ‘essences’ of things, since the creative word of God underlies both. Based on this semantic conception, meaning is also existential fulfilment (bliss), the homeliness of the world. Benjamin’s ‘doctrine of the similar’ relies on the same epistemology of Adamic language and underpins the picture he develops of communistic existence as one of ‘complete security.’
