Dialectic of Enlightenment
"Enlightenment" is gaining new knowledge, the distanciation from the myths of old; a change of perception.
2. What is "Dialectic"?
"Dialectic" is a method used to come to an agreement and/or the truth by rational discussion. In last week's text by Plato, Socrates used a dialectic method in his dialogue with Theaetetus where he gave a hypothesis and then proved it untrue by counter-arguments shining a light on its contradictory nature.
3. What is "Nominalism" and why is it an important concept in the text?
"Nominalism" is the rejection of that general or abstract words can stand for objectively existing entities. They merely are names for the entities; "there is nothing general except names". 1.
For example: two stones can’t be generalized, only the name we’ve given them—“stones”—for each stone is a unique entity.
It is important in the text because they use it as a base for the bourgeois:
"From the formalism of mythical names and statures, which, indifferent like nature, seek to rule over human beings and history, emerges nominalism, the prototype of bourgeois thinking.
4. What is the meaning and function of "myth" in Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?
"Myth" is what we don't know/have control over, the magical, the things which cannot be objectively proven. Myth is what enlightenment strives not to be.
1. In the beginning of the essay, Benjamin talks about the relation between "superstructure" and "substructure" in the capitalist order of production. What do the concepts "superstructure" and "substructure" mean in this context and what is the point of analyzing cultural production from a Marxist perspective?
"Superstructure" is, according to marxist theory, everything that is not directly part of the economic system/production, such as culture, art, religion, science, values etc. and is determined by the substructure.
"Substructure" is everything that has to do with production; the means of production (material, resources), the forces of production (machinery) and the relations of production (those who own the resources and machinery.
The point of analyzing cultural production from a Marxist perspective is to look at the gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat that exists in modern cultural production. If this gap gets too big a social revolution becomes imminent. But too keep this revolution at bay the culture industry shape the proletariat's values, and controls them, by usage of the media, entertainment etc.
2. Does culture have revolutionary potentials (according to Benjamin)? If so, describe these potentials. Does Benjamin's perspective differ from the perspective of Adorno & Horkheimer in this regard?
According to Benjamin, culture does have revolutionary potentials, such as the potential to promote revolutionary criticism of social conditions.
Adomor & Horkheimer’s perspective differs in that they think of the culture industry, and in a sense culture, as rigid:
“Culture has always contributed to the subduing of revolutionary as well as of barbaric instincts. Industrial culture does something more. It inculcates the conditions on which implacable life is allowed to be lived at all.”
As I see it, they think that the culture industry is holding progress and true creativity back, in favour of the tried and true. It creates, and has already created, a uniformity the society won’t escape.
3. Benjamin discusses how people perceive the world through the senses and argues that this perception can be both naturally and historically determined. What does this mean? Give some examples of historically determined perception (from Benjamin's essay and/or other contexts).
Naturally determined perception is how we perceive things by default, without further information which has been granted to us about how we should perceive things. Examples of this is how the receptors in our eyes and ears let us perceive colours, light and sound.
Examples of historically determined perception:
The way a work of art – let’s say a painting – is perceived through history is altered by events; a painting of war might be seen as barbaric in a time of peace, but when war rages again it is seen as a depiction of true heroism.
Our perception of movement has been altered by the ability to see little details, that we normally can’t see, with the help of the camera. Hence it is historically determined by the introduction of the camera.
4. What does Benjamin mean by the term "aura"? Are there different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects?
"Aura" is an object's uniqueness, what we only can experience when perceiving an object first-hand. By reproducing something, it's aura is lessened.
For an art object, according to Benjamin, the aura has its basis in the location of its original use value.
For natural objects the aura is just tied to their presence.
Self-preserving guile lives on the argument berween word and thing."
4. What is the meaning and function of "myth" in Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?
"Myth" is what we don't know/have control over, the magical, the things which cannot be objectively proven. Myth is what enlightenment strives not to be.
The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity
"Superstructure" is, according to marxist theory, everything that is not directly part of the economic system/production, such as culture, art, religion, science, values etc. and is determined by the substructure.
"Substructure" is everything that has to do with production; the means of production (material, resources), the forces of production (machinery) and the relations of production (those who own the resources and machinery.
The point of analyzing cultural production from a Marxist perspective is to look at the gap between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat that exists in modern cultural production. If this gap gets too big a social revolution becomes imminent. But too keep this revolution at bay the culture industry shape the proletariat's values, and controls them, by usage of the media, entertainment etc.
2. Does culture have revolutionary potentials (according to Benjamin)? If so, describe these potentials. Does Benjamin's perspective differ from the perspective of Adorno & Horkheimer in this regard?
According to Benjamin, culture does have revolutionary potentials, such as the potential to promote revolutionary criticism of social conditions.
Adomor & Horkheimer’s perspective differs in that they think of the culture industry, and in a sense culture, as rigid:
“Culture has always contributed to the subduing of revolutionary as well as of barbaric instincts. Industrial culture does something more. It inculcates the conditions on which implacable life is allowed to be lived at all.”
As I see it, they think that the culture industry is holding progress and true creativity back, in favour of the tried and true. It creates, and has already created, a uniformity the society won’t escape.
3. Benjamin discusses how people perceive the world through the senses and argues that this perception can be both naturally and historically determined. What does this mean? Give some examples of historically determined perception (from Benjamin's essay and/or other contexts).
Naturally determined perception is how we perceive things by default, without further information which has been granted to us about how we should perceive things. Examples of this is how the receptors in our eyes and ears let us perceive colours, light and sound.
Examples of historically determined perception:
The way a work of art – let’s say a painting – is perceived through history is altered by events; a painting of war might be seen as barbaric in a time of peace, but when war rages again it is seen as a depiction of true heroism.
Our perception of movement has been altered by the ability to see little details, that we normally can’t see, with the help of the camera. Hence it is historically determined by the introduction of the camera.
4. What does Benjamin mean by the term "aura"? Are there different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects?
"Aura" is an object's uniqueness, what we only can experience when perceiving an object first-hand. By reproducing something, it's aura is lessened.
For an art object, according to Benjamin, the aura has its basis in the location of its original use value.
For natural objects the aura is just tied to their presence.
So the answer is: Yes there are different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects.
- An Examination of Sir William Hamilton's Philosophy, John Stuart Mill
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