Abstract
To Liberate the Future by an Act of Cognition offers a holistic interpretation of Walter Benjamin's thought by explicating his theory of truth. Truth is in things themselves, not in knowledge, yet in the (empirical) world it does not find its perfect expression.
Benjamin hence looks for the proper cognitive and expressive means of its presentation. The problem of the presentation of truth, however, is not only theoretical but also ethical and political, and even eschatological: Truth calls for its presentation, for its actualization, and hence it is necessary to change the world and/or to redeem it.
By reconstructing Benjamin's theory of truth, then, one can demonstrate interconnections between theoretical and practical, materialist and religious moments in Benjamin's thought.