Violence, Education, and Law

Contributions from Walter Benjamin’s Critique of Violence

Abstract

The advance of capitalism has intensified various forms of violence—some inherited from earlier times, others specific to the contemporary era—demanding a critical and collective commitment not only to their analysis but also to the possibilities for overcoming them. This text aims to explore the relationship between violence and law, drawing on Walter Benjamin’s 1921 essay Critique of Violence, a work that remains particularly relevant today as it reveals that violence is not merely an exception but a foundational element of modern orders. A century later, Benjamin’s critique offers valuable insights for reflecting on structural violence and its normalized expressions, as well as for rethinking education and cultural transmission through the concept of Bildung—an ethical, cultural, and spiritual formation—as opposed to normative Erziehung. Formation, understood in this way, allows violence to be addressed as an object of reflection, memory, and cultural transformation, rather than naturalizing it or becoming desensitized to it.