This thorough study on the work of the German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin exposes - in Benjamin’s own metaphor - the ‘dwarf of theology’ hidden in the machinery of his work, his own form of ‘historical materialism’. In doing so it unearths and explains his language theory, his art theory, his most cryptic baroque book, his philosophy of history, and, last but not least, his famous labyrinthine unfinished opus magnum on Paris, The Arcades project (the first philosophical book ...

In this book, activist philosopher and philosophical activist Lieven de Cauter investigates the idea that if we want to avoid collapse, we have to end the Anthropocene – the geological era of the gigantic, devastating impact of our species on planet Earth. It might even be, he argues, that the collapse of our current, growth-maximizing system is the only hope for the biosphere.

Offering case studies on urban activism alongside more general reflections on civic action and social movements, D...