L'«intentio prima» del linguaggio. Per una filosofia dell'espressione

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to reread Benjamin's philosophy of language
through the concept of expression. The first paragraph explains the general outline within the question of how expression and language is thought, especially in the early speculation of Benjamin. The language – far from being a mere instrument – is the medium in which each thing communicates itself: it is the essential principle, which structures each element of reality. The language, as a pure expression that does not
refer to other than itself, is the true a priori of all things, either animated or inanimate. The second paragraph shows the proximity of Benjamin's linguistic speculation and to the kabbalistic thought of Abulafia and Scholem. The reflections about the Name of God as the supreme expression (that is what is meaningless and what, at the same time, gives meaning to everything else) indicate to Benjamin the way to rethink the conditions of the possibility of language. What is communicated within the name is language itself. Therefore the human language, inasmuch as it is able to denominate, mainly participates in this pure expressive capacity of the Name of God. Suggesting a confrontation with Wittgenstein, the third paragraph explains why, according to Benjamin, the task of philosophy consists in placing itself in this anterior level of the meaning. The task precisely consists in saying the inexpressible that is the language itself, its event as pure expression.