Dialectic of
Enlightenment
1.
What is "Enlightenment"?
Described by Adorno and Horkheimer, Enlightenment is to ”liberate humans
of fear and installing them as masters. ” Enlightenment use rational scientific
method to explain the things which people do not understand and described as
myths, “it emphasized reason, analysis, and individualism rather than
traditional lines of authority” and liberate humans mind.
2.
What is "Dialectic"?
Dialectic is a method for helping resolve
debate or disagreement between two people who have different opinions and
ideas for a subject. The method in order to help find out who is right and who
is wrong and give an argument.
3.
What is "Nominalism" and why is it an important
concept in the text?
Nominalism is “a metaphysical view in philosophy according to which
general or abstract terms and predicates exist, while universals or abstract
objects, which are sometimes thought to correspond to these terms, do not
exist.” Nominalism is an important concept in the text because it is somewhere
like the enlightenment to denied all abstract concepts.
4.
What is the meaning and function of "myth" in
Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?
Myth is a concept and story that was told in an ancient culture to explain a
practice, belief or natural occurrence. It is the culture established on the human fears and fantasies. It was
widely used by political powers and religious forces to control people.
"The Work of Art in the Age of Technical
Reproductivity"
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?
The superstructure and substructure
is the concept of Marxist. Which the superstructure is culture, institutions
and political power structures and which the substructure is the forces and
relations of production. The culture and culture production likes the
superstructure and substructure, the substructure determines the superstructure
but in a one-way relationship cause the superstructure often influences the
substructure.
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?
The culture have
revolutionary potentials according to Benjamin. For example the photography, the image replication
process have a greatly accelerated with the lens uses, it broaden our horizons
and more details which are not easy to defined in normal reproduced to people’s
eyes. It also changed the way of people viewing the art objects, it makes more
people can admire the works of art and plays an unparalleled role in the culture
dissemination. Culture promote development of technology and technology promote
reform of culture.
Benjamin and Adorno
has a little similar opinion in this regard. Although Benjamin has different
ideas of mechanical reproduction, he gave his affirmative for photography.
Which is similar like Adorno & Horkheimer’s view that technological
progress has the potential to disseminate culture and knowledge.
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).
People perceive the world through the senses
and senses depend on the knowledge of priori
and posterior. But the knowledge of
priori and posterior determined by naturally and historically or we could say
the living environment and policy of rule forces in that time will influence
people’s value for culture.
For the example given in Benjamin’s
essay, the different value concept for vanes between the time of Greece and
Middle Ages.
4.
What does Benjamin mean by the term "aura"? Are
there different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects?
The word "aura" that Benjamin described is
"aura is the perfect combination
of art and space time, it is an unique
presence, reflecting the authenticity
of art." We could say aura is what authenticity art object lost in the age
of mechanical reproduction, the unparalleled, the mystery, the value of people
worship. But it also given a reactivating or renewing itself in the contemporary
society.
An different kind of aura in natural objects can refer to the
”unique phenomenon of a distance”, which is similar to the distance perception.
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