EXPERIENCE AND POVERTY

A LOOK AT REALITY FROM WALTER BENJAMIN

Abstract

The search to understand the meaning of experience in human life marked the writings of Walter Benjamin. His work is permeated by this search and by the understanding of his impoverishment in modernity, based on various inventions, techniques and technologies that radically changed the existence of the individual in society. Experience and poverty: a look at reality from Walter Benjamin is a reflection on the impoverishment of the sense of experience in our days, considering Benjamin's perspective. The objective of this article is to discuss, in brief, how the concept and reflection on experience and especially its impoverishment is still important and capable of helping to understand our reality. This is a proposal for reflection Benjamin's texts that deal with the theme of experience, especially “About the philosophy program to come” and “Experience and Poverty”, taking as a reference the discussion between experience and experience, both captured by capitalist society, becoming impoverished and disconnected from reality. Rescuing the true sense of experience that can guide human existence is an imperative that is imposed. How to overcome the mechanization  life brought about by technology is a question that arises in an attempt not to deny technology, but rather to critically reflect on its subjective influences on the individual and on a society driven by excess information and technology. Seeking the meaning of experience, from Benjamin's perspective, can be a way of supporting human beings who are so wounded and diminished in a society that places too much emphasis on reason and technique.