In the lecture we were taught that to really understand a text, the context must be the same when you read it as when it was written. If the text was written in a cafe, you have to be in a cafe when you read it. The lecture contained history of what was happening during the time the texts were written, which made it easier to put my self into the context.
The texts were Adorno & Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment and Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity. Benjamin wrote his text before the world war II, and the other text was written during the war. These texts were very difficult in another way. Though Kant was very abstract, these text's where very back and forward, so it was it was hard to keep up with the reasoning.
During the seminar we discussed dialectics, nominalism, the enlightenment and how relate to mass culture during the time these texts were written. If mass culture can have revolutionary potentials. We talked about how fascism made politics aesthetic and how communism made aesthetics political. One really good thing that the teacher did was the drawing of a cave to better understand the concept of nominalism. There was this man in the middle, the shadow of the real world on the wall of the cave which we only can see, and then the "idea"-world outside. And we discussed how important it can be to step away and look out from the cave into the "idea"-world, which also is one of the main critique of nominalism. Sometimes in can be good to use the "idea"-world, because society in itself is just a idea.
The texts were Adorno & Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment and Walter Benjamin's The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity. Benjamin wrote his text before the world war II, and the other text was written during the war. These texts were very difficult in another way. Though Kant was very abstract, these text's where very back and forward, so it was it was hard to keep up with the reasoning.
During the seminar we discussed dialectics, nominalism, the enlightenment and how relate to mass culture during the time these texts were written. If mass culture can have revolutionary potentials. We talked about how fascism made politics aesthetic and how communism made aesthetics political. One really good thing that the teacher did was the drawing of a cave to better understand the concept of nominalism. There was this man in the middle, the shadow of the real world on the wall of the cave which we only can see, and then the "idea"-world outside. And we discussed how important it can be to step away and look out from the cave into the "idea"-world, which also is one of the main critique of nominalism. Sometimes in can be good to use the "idea"-world, because society in itself is just a idea.
Hi!
SvaraRaderaI like the example of the cave. I think it's easier to to understand difficult concepts with simple explanations because our head can handle concepts better when they are illustrated visually and by storytelling. We desperately want to figure out the "real" world instead of trying to understand the idea world which probably is more real to us in a sense.
Great picture by the way!
Hi Magnus,
SvaraRaderaI also really like his example with the cave. It's so much easier to understand the different concepts if you illustrate and talk about them. The discussion on our seminar brought us to the meaning of conceptual thinking in modern time. Using the conceptual thinking as a tool we created democratic philosophies to get a better society. The concept of UN and the guidelines that UN are trying to pursue its all about conceptual thinking. And all that I realised using the example with the cave.
Hello!
SvaraRaderaI also thought it was interesting when he explained that to grasp the entire context of a text, you have to be in the same situation or place as where it was written, which can in many situations be incredible hard! And as you said, I think we need to mix the idea-world with the real-world so we don't get "stuck" in only the things that we see. We have also learned to think more critical and 'outside the box' so to say :) Great reflection and good luck with further studies!
//Hannah