Theme 2 - first post

1.What is "Enlightenment"?

There was an era when you replaced myths, rumours and fantasy with facts and real knowledge. An age of reason, where it was important to emphasize reason and analysis rather then just believing on what myths you have learnt from before. 

  

2.What is "Dialectic"?

Refers to different ways of reasoning and using logic, without being affected of excising myths and fantasy. So dialectic is a way to discuss to be able to get closer to the truth.

   

3.What is "Nominalism" and why is it an important concept in the text?

Nominalism is a way of thinking that you should not generalize any object by a word. For example a table is a table, sure, but at the same time it is not the same object. So the word table could be rather meaningless, since every object in a sense is unique. And it depends on the person seeing it, big for be could just as well be small to another person who looks at the object though his eyes. In this text this is important, when you discus objects and try to be as reasonable as possible.

     

4.What is the meaning and function of "myth" in Adorno and Horkheimer's argument?

The meaning and function of myth is to expand the word and also being able to explain the world. By using myths you can find reason and explanations for things happening in the world. But a myth has nothing dialectic about them, and myths are build on little knowledge and logical thinking.

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?

Here we have what I found regarding the meaning of the two different concepts:
Superstructure: Involves values, norms and things that aren´t directly connected to the production it self. Superstructure is determined by substructure.

Substructure: how the economic activity is design affects the production. Substructure involves the recourses and the actual machines of the production and staff. The economy can be designed like capitalism or more equal and more like socialism.

What this means in the context of cultural production and what the point is to analyze it is that when you understand the connection between the two concepts you can better understand the cultural production. Why the cultural production is how it is, depends on its 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?

Yes as the technology develops so does the culture. Many years ago to be able to capture the nature you had to do a painting while you to day can use the camera on you phone. This means absolutely that the culture has revolutionary potentials. Thanks to the technical development the culture develops too and ere is where Adorno and Horkheimer differs from Benjamin. Benjamin is rather negative to this and mentions the aura as being loosed while Adorno and Horkheimer is rather positive.

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).

How we see and perceive the world is according to Benjamin, a bit like Socrates, through the senses. But Benjamin emphasize that perception can be both naturally and historically determined. How you we perceive the world changes over time and this could be actually be the explanation why. One example is beauty, what is beauty? What is beauty when it´s naturally determined could be when feature of health and wellbeing is something you feel attracted to so that you future kids get the same standard. While for the historically perspective depends on historical events and changes over time. 

4.    What does Benjamin mean by the term "aura"? Are there different kinds of aura in natural objects compared to art objects?

Aura is the eliminated element, which get lost in art objects.  Benjamin meant that it s “which withers in age of mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art”. Reproduction jeopardizes the authenticity of the work of art. This is hard to capture, like the example that was given was the picture of nature does not show the same experience that actually being in it would. A natural object has not been shaped by anyone who would have given the object some characteristic features that would give the object a different aura. 

Mechanical reproduction = Do not touch the work of art but still the quality of it´s presences always depreciated.