Key Terms Lecture
Autonomy- Self determination, the capacity to make decisions on your own, about your own future. Modernity holds this as a strong value, more traditional societies do not invest in the autonomy of the individual
Growth of Nation States- History of roman Catholicism and Italian culture although there is nothing like a nation and the structure of a modern Italy. Emergence through the initial structures like the monarchy and detachment from the initial understanding of colonialism.
Liberation/ Revolution- Utopian ideas, very modern ideas, liberating thyself from tradition. Liberating the downtrodden from the understated.
Increased Commerce - The development of capitalism as the dominant socioeconomic structure. The constitution of the key economic difference is that capitalism is everywhere, and the modern structure of life.
Colonization- Association with moderation and also decolonization embedded in modern ethos
Industrialization and Increased Efficiency- Efficiency of space and co originated with industrialization.
Secularization - In sociology, secularization (or secularisation)[1] is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions. The secularization thesis expresses to the idea that as societies progress, particularly through modernizationand rationalization, religious authority diminishes in all aspects of social life and governance.[2] The term "secularization" may also occur in the context of the lifting of monastic restrictions from a member of the clergy.[3]
Valourization of Reason- In Marxism, the valorisation or valorization of capital is the increase in the value of capital assets through the application of value-forming labour in production. The German original term is "Verwertung" (specifically Kapitalverwertung) but this is difficult to translate.
Utopianism- Driving the modern ideals and values. In Marxism, the valorisation or valorization of capital is the increase in the value of capital assets through the application of value-forming labour in production. The German original term is "Verwertung" (specifically Kapitalverwertung) but this is difficult to translate.
Key Terms Wiki / Research
Postmodernity (post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity (In this context, "modern" is not used in the sense of "contemporary", but merely as a name for a specific period in history). Some schools of thought hold that modernity ended in the late 20th century – in the 1980s or early 1990s – and that it was replaced by postmodernity, and still others would extend modernity to cover the developments denoted by postmodernity, while some believe that modernity ended after World War II.
Antinomianism (from the Greek: ἀντί, "against" + νόμος, "law") is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so.[1] The term has both religious and secular meanings.
Neoconservatism (commonly shortened to neocon when labelling its adherents) is a political movementborn in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party, and the growing New Left and counterculture, in particular the Vietnam protests. Some also began to question their liberal beliefs regarding domestic policies such as the Great Society.
Neoconservatism (commonly shortened to neocon when labelling its adherents) is a political movementborn in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party, and the growing New Left and counterculture, in particular the Vietnam protests. Some also began to question their liberal beliefs regarding domestic policies such as the Great Society.
Enlightenment
Colonialism
Decolonization
Feminism
Capitalism
Structuralism
Post-Structuralism
Post-Colonialism
The Information Age
Industrialization
Psychoanalysis
Aesthetic
Individual Autonomy
Lecture : Thursday January 9 2020
Key Terms Lecture
Autonomy- Self determination, the capacity to make decisions on your own, about your own future. Modernity holds this as a strong value, more traditional societies do not invest in the autonomy of the individual.
Growth of Nation States- History of roman Catholicism and Italian culture although there is nothing like a nation and the structure of a modern Italy. Emergence through the initial structures like the monarchy and detachment from the initial understanding of colonialism.
Liberation/ Revolution- Utopian ideas, very modern ideas, liberating thyself from tradition. Liberating the downtrodden from the understated.
Increased Commerce - The development of capitalism as the dominant socio-economic structure. The constitution of the key economic difference is that capitalism is everywhere, and the modern structure of life.
Colonization- Association with moderation and also decolonization embedded in modern ethos.
Industrialization and Increased Efficiency- Efficiency of space and co originated with industrialization.
Secularization - In sociology, secularization (or secularization)[1] is the transformation of a society from close identification with religious values and institutions toward nonreligious values and secular institutions. The secularization thesis expresses to the idea that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religious authority diminishes in all aspects of social life and governance.[2] The term "secularization" may also occur in the context of the lifting of monastic restrictions from a member of the clergy.[3]
Valourization of Reason- In Marxism, the Valourization or valourization of capital is the increase in the value of capital assets through the application of value-forming labour in production. The German original term is "Verwertung" (specifically Kapitalverwertung) but this is difficult to translate.
Utopianism- Driving the modern ideals and values. In Marxism, the valorisation or valorization of capital is the increase in the value of capital assets through the application of value-forming labour in production. The German original term is "Verwertung" (specifically Kapitalverwertung) but this is difficult to translate.
Key Terms Wiki / Research
Postmodernity (post-modernity or the postmodern condition) is the economic or cultural state or condition of society which is said to exist after modernity (In this context, "modern" is not used in the sense of "contemporary", but merely as a name for a specific period in history). Some schools of thought hold that modernity ended in the late 20th century – in the 1980s or early 1990s – and that it was replaced by postmodernity, and still others would extend modernity to cover the developments denoted by postmodernity, while some believe that modernity ended after World War II.
Antinomianism (from the Greek: ἀντί, "against" + νόμος, "law") is any view which rejects laws or legalism and argues against moral, religious or social norms (Latin: mores), or is at least considered to do so.[1] The term has both religious and secular meanings.
Neoconservatism (commonly shortened to neocon when labelling its adherents) is a political movement born in the United States during the 1960s among liberal hawks who became disenchanted with the increasingly pacifist foreign policy of the Democratic Party, and the growing New Left and counterculture, in particular the Vietnam protests. Some also began to question their liberal beliefs regarding domestic policies such as the Great Society.
Enlightenment - European intellectual movement of the late 17th and 18th centuries emphasizing reason and individualism rather than tradition. Influenced by the 17th century philosophers Descartes, Locke and Newton, the proponents include Kant, Goethe, Voltaire and Rousseau.
Colonialism - The practice of inserting political control over another country, occupying it with settlers and exploiting it economically.
Decolonization- The withdraw of colonialism.
Feminism - The advocacy of feminism on the basis of equality.
Capitalism - an economic and political system in which a countries trade and industry are controlled by profit rather than by the state.
Structuralism - A method of interpretation and analysis of aspects of the human cognitive system, behaviour, culture and experience that focuses on relationships of contrast between elements in a conceptual system that reflect patterns underlying a superficial diversity.
Post-Structuralism - An extension and critique of structuralism used in a critical textual analysis.
Post-Colonialism - The cultural or political condition of a formal colony, a theoretical approach that is concerned with the lasting impact of colonialism in former colonies.
The Information Age - Technological revolution that occurred in the 1990’s.
Industrialization - The development of countries and regions that have undergone rapid development on a wide scale. The change from an agrarian community to a industrial community, reorganizing the economy for the purpose of manufacturing.
Psychoanalysis - The medical systematic theory that aims to treat psychological disorders by investigating the differentiation between consciousness and unconscious elements in the mind to reveal repressed emotions into the conscious mind.
Aesthetic - The appreciation of beauty on a visual level.
Individual Autonomy - an individuals freedom to exercise independence, external control and self-governance.
Lecture : Thursday January 9 2020
The basis to our understanding in a modern day and age is based upon the concepts of Modernity and how it has come to exist. Throughout the basis in our manners of conduction we have to pause in order to surpass these ideologies. In order to grasp our contemporary existence, we contemplate things such as a) is modernism gendered ? b) how do colonialism and de-colonialism enter into the construction of modernism ? c) is modernism gendered, and what makes us modern ? Lastly how do colonialism and de-colonialism enter into the construction of modernism. All of these questions have become the foundation to our conservative perspectives in the way of presenting modernity and post-modernity in our contemporary day and age. Since the 18th century, modernism has been presented colloquially as a gendered and Eurocentric model for universalism. We understand that the basis to philosophical discourse, often originating in mythology and superstition essentially plays an enormous role in constructing the canonical viewpoints and perspectives that create the modern design. Yes, its true, modernism since the 18th century has been specifically gendered and delegated towards the aristocratic European male due to the nature and constructs of colonialism.
How do colonialism and de-colonialism enter into the construction of modernism. Due to the nature of design, the cognitive ability to differentiate between the mediation of knowledge through logic and reason constitutes this evolution in mankind. The understanding of one’s role in society is to declare oneself the owner of their own thoughts and their independent justification to self righteousness. Rene Descartes states, “ I Think Therefore I am” and is therefore the individual’s right to subjectivity and thought.
The nature of colonialism is a result of modernity as the manner of conduction wherein the Eurocentric model of enlightenment had become the archetype of the basis to existence in our modern day and age. This becomes extremely apparent in post world war two ideology being presented by theorists, migrated members of the Frankfurt school such as Theodor Adorno and Max Horkeimmer are especially relevant because of the reinstitution of German ideology in North America making the nature of colonialism especially relevant.
What makes us modern ?
The ability to make ones own decisions and to debase the nature of religion, mass psychology and the hierarchy of institution to state ones own moral defence through the notions of enlightenment. Additionally our ability to develop concepts such as capitalism, individualism, and urbanization through socio-economic planes.
What is Autonomy ?
What constitutes the modern ?
The early modern period is often associated with the late renaissance period in Europe. Sir Francis Bacon was working through the concepts of a universal science. He believed in progressive, rational ideas that supported the accumulation of total knowledge in the natural world so that he might understand the dominance of nature over culture. This in some cases might be conceptualized as the basis to dictatorship over nature. The constitution of modernity is the basis of design and is therefore implicated through the domination of society through Fascism in a contemporary day and age despite the elements and justification of morality.
The forefront form, dividing science from the natural philosophy and alchemy is being defined as pseudoscience. His idea was that scientists should be working together developing first principles to understanding keys to the natural world, and by doing this they create a science that is subjective and experimental.
Recognizing the nature of contradiction in mythology to reality, Bacon can begin to therefore dominate the nature to ‘reality’. Francis Bacon & Colleagues tortured the conceptual means to nature ( as denoted female ) and developed ideas as to indicate the suppression of women as an element of the enlightenment era.
The accumulation of verifiable, objective knowledge is steeped in the irrational world as the insturmentalization of torture ect.
Human rationality can quell superstition and free society from animal natures, additionally the ability to produce knowledge through engagement, which is deemed unlimited. Knowledge is power, therefore the accumulation of reason is to create a tool for the production and accumulation of knowledge.
The anxieties that drove the modern movement perpetuated modernity. Depicted by Goya as fastidious and dramatic, the illustration pokes fun at the ideals of enlightenment. The illustration shows the scholar asleep at his desk, horrible creatures pecking and screeching at the night owls. If we allow our reason to fail us, we will always have the world of superstition and irrationality which are to be fought and which are therefore attentive to keeping the gates closed.
Modernity as a European phenomenon, as human irrationality should free us from all superstition. Modernity was designed to be freeing us from our instinctive nature. The idea of tradition was about the lack of freedom for individuals, born into social status where individuals were always beholden to rulers who would make decisions on behalf of the people.
Freedom from human nature and the violence can be seen at the heart of humanity. Reason is meant to override our inclinations towards superstitions, violence and madness.
Modernity is prepositionally meant to be an investment into the natural world, the enlightenment thinkers regard this horror with fear… Not because of the power resides in nature but more so because they believe that they are subject to nature itself. Enlightenment is the ability to overcome the concept of mind over body in the ability to transcend the natural instinctual desires that is innate to the human psychology. The differentiation in mind from body is the enlightened individual. Humans should be able to stay in charge of nature by controlling their natural instincts, to be able to differentiate mind from body and to not be at the beckoned call of nature. We can therefore concur that in all manner of phenomenon the nature of the ideology is developed through natural reason, the more we can understand of the natural world the more we can overcome it with our understanding to reason. We should be able to differentiate the idea of phenomenon with the use of logic and reason and to exercise our understanding of reality through the psychee.
Historically - in the 16th/ 15th European society develops new economic forms, cultural forms, political forms, as a result in the 18th century philosophical thinkers and cultural theorists are fully working into the new modern ethos. Modernity and Modernism ( which is the ideology that promotes modern values and is exhibited in cultural production ) had long been considered to be the inventors of ( Western Europe as the producer too a superior politically, economically, technologically and intellectually ) society through an extension of European power.
What constitutes modernity in the European perspective, should be the destabilizing narrative which is the basis of multiple modernity as a global phenomenon that Europe was a single part of.
Jurgen Habermas 1929
The more advanced this separation of the expertise becomes, the further the gap grows between the cultural institution. The contrast between the metaphysical experts on one side of the life world ( the realm of everyday experience ) on the other. Habermas writes that the 18th century partisans of the enlightenment such as the Marquis de Condorcet could still entertain the extravagant expectation that the arts and sciences would not merely promote the control of the forces of nature, but would also further the understanding of self and world at the price of morality, justice in social institutions.
- see above How to withdraw from the modernity how to get unstuck. The life world can be likened to an exploited class who toils in order, to maintain biological sustenance, producing food and energy to do the work aside from the value spheres. * ( Neo liberal concept). Everyday life is the exploited slave class that provides power to the research, this has not liberated us, we have not been liberated from tradition but continued.
How could the project of modernity be finished, how to communicate the value of expertise that has to be communicated and applied, meaning that we are eg. a member of the value sphere, therefore taking the value of the work of a scholar to liberate the people around them from a life of toil. Habermas notes that this is about communication, rational communication. We need to learn how to speak the language of value spheres and to use reason to justify the values of a better cause.
For example narrating text on how to conduct human beings to live better lives. Habermas is on the side of modernity that is against tradition, he is writing from a 20th century ideal. He is still alive and defending reason and democracy even when these things are in short supply, and argues that we should not abandon the process of modernity.
How do we create the world that is more democratic, in the face of the horrible irrational explosion that occurred in fascist nazi Germany through the world war 2 in the 1930's. In our contemporary movement, there are many other examples of irrational thought.
Modernity, since the 15th century has been in use. What it has referred to is a type of temporal period tradition from the traditional world into another kind of world. Modernity is about dreaming possibilities. Like his predecessors of the enlightenment, it is embracing this tradition and is not super keen to the traditional world. He is to liberate us from tradition and into rational beings.
He is responding to Lyotard and other members of the postmodern who are rejecting modernity, for its single vision, over rational emphasis on ideality. Habermas notes that any anti- modern position is therefore conservative and regressive. Habermas considers the goal of modernity to be the progressive development of reason and democracy, to reject modernity and modernism for Habermas means that it is irrational and full of superstition. Therefore dangerous as anti -reason and anti - democratic actions. Habermas's Theory of Modernity is to understand modernity as a project, is to understand it as a process with an end goal. The process of modernization creates efficiencies by systematizing knowledge and governance into distinct spheres. We want to become more efficient as thinkers, to specialize and as such Habermas creates value spheres to differentiate knowledge from experience.
- Science and knowledge ( scientists/ lawyers are not specialists in scientific knowledge and discourse )
2) Law and Morality.
3) Art and critical discourse.
Each of these spheres are mobilized within institutions ( the legal system is a mobilization of law and morality, for example ) that belongs to cultural systems that are essentially the nation state. Institutions are helmed by experts in subfields that belong to each of these value spheres ( eg lawyers, judges, and legislators ).
The more advanced the separation of expertise becomes, the further the gap grows between cultural institutions and experts on one side of the ‘life world’ the realm of the everyday experience on the other. Habermas writes, that in the 18th century “ partisans of the enlightenment such as Condorcet could entertain the extravagant expectation that arts and sciences would not merely promote the control of the forces of nature, but also further the understanding of self and world, the progress of morality, justice in social institutions and even human happiness” ( 45 ). We no longer have faith in the ability of experts to teach us how to live. Enlightenment dream is utopian, modernization focused on colonization based off of these value spheres. The cultural modernism refers to the idea that class is reflected by capital nation state system although that ideology has not transformed practical life. Practical life “ life world” is the exploited class who toils for a privileged existence. Practical lives are colonized by modern ideals. Habermas aims to complete the project of modernity. He fears that human society will fall to irrational world views and therefore authoritarian views.
Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, 1923 - 2010
Thinking about modernity in other times, e.g. Eisenstadt - Israeli philosopher who died in 2010. Eisenstadt argues that while there are other contemporary worlds in which other countries and cultures study, what they all share is that they are all modern. He argues this at the end of the 20th century, modernity is multiple, and that it exists in a multiplicity. There are multiple modernities because there are different cultures modernizing in different ways in different places. He enters the debate between modernity and post modernity, as we must conceive of modernity as multiple- different societies and to " Modernize " in different ways in order to suit the needs of each individual environment economically and philosophically. The western version of modernism serves mainly as another reference point among many other forms of modernism, although for Eisenstadt, it is historically “First”. Modernism(s) attempt to liberate the people from a religious and secular traditional authority. Modernity and modernization involves fostering of individual autonomy and communal responsibility ( this leads to the politicization of life, political participation becomes an expectation.). Globalization introduces new, counter modernities that might have been considered post-modern, although Eisenstadt notes the these are alternative forms of modernization, instituting alternative modernities.
Cultures cannot take a post-colonial stance until the culture has had its own modern state, modern state as defined by western powers before it is able to critique of modernity. Eisenstadt counters, in that there is the concept of Western Modernity and therefore that post modernity counters the concept of the modern western world. He demonstrates the theory that Europe developed modernity first, and therefore exports conceptually and literally through colonialism and trade. Once modernity moves out of Europe it develops diversity. He says that all of these nation states that embrace that kind of attitude of the west have in common -something of the west. They are all aiming for liberation, a modern project. The fostering of individual autonomy is a touchstone of modernity. When the nations modernize in this way, they embrace this and show society that the people should be liberated in all aspects of life. The therefore should become liberal and are expected to be apathetic and to care about this position in the world and should to want to be liberated ( from modernity ). This liberation goes hand in hand in democracy and therefore supports Eisenstadt's theory. They do not have to embrace capitalism and superiority and therefore the politicization of life. So we have a globalized world that Eisenstadt calls counter-modernity, or multiple modernities in which where people can/will therefore modernize.
Enrique Dussel ( 1934 )
Argentinian/ Mexican philosopher. He lectured on modernity and capitalism. The rudimentary nature of his studies noted that the European empire, modernity, capitalism and colonialism are co-originated and we cannot speak of one without invoking the others. He disputes the central idea of Europe in the 15th century is a rough grouping of peripheral and provincial cultures that are globally lacking in accordance to south western Asias. Historical explanation displays different phases of development in modernity. He refused to separate modernity, capitalism and colonialism. All of his work is very much geared towards how to understand how capitalism and colonialism are all sort of dependant on one another and emerge at the same time. Dussel is not a fan of modernity, or post modernity. He has different reasons for this then Habermas. Dussel rejects the claim that Europe is the derivative of modernity. He states that the centrality of Europe is promoted by enlightenment philosophy and cultural attitudes that ignore alternatives. For example in the 15th century Dussel argues that local cultures in Europe are weaker then China and Hindustan, wherein he states that these two alternative countries might be better as the originating factors as the central development of Modernity.
European modernity is an adaptation to the condition created by others, fractured principalities, kingdoms and villages that are through provincial and backwards places. The reason why European capital, trade, and travel develop is because of the imperial ideal in China that had put an end to sea travel. The suppliers that were once supplied by the Chinese were therefore replaced by the European trade market. Dussel disputes the developmental fallacy that Europe exports modernity to the pre modern, backward society. He therefore shows that modernity has always been global and this therefore leads to a new world and is therefore not a European invention. He argues the idea that Europe participates in something that is referred to as a backward world, a changing world that was/ is simultaneously changing around Europeans.
Divulges in a concept called Trans-Modernity.
Dussel also talks about “ Developmental Fallacy”, where Europe exports modernity to the lesser economies in a state of hypothetical pre-modern, backwards societies. Developmental fallacy implies that post-colonial encounters to European modernity include colonialism, imperialism and capitalism which become irreverent and therefore subject to scrutiny. They are therefore elements of re-modernization. Through the understanding of advancement, we cannot have a post colonial advancement to this understanding of modernity unless there is a modernizing force in Europe. Any post colonial critique then becomes a product of the western world. A post colonial critique can only happen if a colonial nation has been developed ( through European/ western ideology).
Post-modernity has not left the modern state in the same way that values and assumptions create the structuralist value of modernity. The noted structure that is the outside of modernity becomes is something that the framework of society can encounter through modernity in a real way, not just through an invention of re-modernity.
Dussel also argues that trans modernity is a critique of post modernity, remaining inside of modernity and implicated in modern values. The trans-modernity process speaking specifically of that context e.g. African peoples who have been subject to slavery and has always been post colonial and has been countered to colonialism and is therefore an anti colonial perspective.
He sees this as a site of modernity, the populations that have been left out of the narrative of modernity they also have become exploited by modernity. The developmental fallacy implies that any legitimate post-colonial encounter to European modernity (Which includes colonialism, imperialism and capitalism) must emerge from an advanced civilization that is one that has modernized and here, we must read modern as western).
Dussel challenges the developmental fallacy with this theory of trans-modernity, or the trans-modernity process. This is a theory of resistance mounted by the indigenous peoples of North and South American and the African civilians, the derived population of the Americas that had been brought to that area through the European slave trade. He re-affirms that their stance has always been a post colonial stance. The new development can view the world in a different way, the various ethnic groups of exploited population isn't excepting the otherness, it is post colonial and decolonizing. Dussel looks towards a better future and a better world, his vision for the future is not assimilation into a modern European universe, but a trans-modern pluri- verse ( 46 ) that celebrates difference arising to consensus. The trans-modern originates the exterior of the Other that which was never considered " modern”.
The Trans Modern Pluri-Verse in the TransModern thinker / actor
1) Faithful to their own, local tradition and history, treating their own identity process, not a substance.
2) Capable of adopting the best aspects of modernity.
3) Responding to contemporary challenges with creative solutions that draw on both modern perspectives and those from beyond modernity.
Trans-Moderinity processes / procures a better world that the one generated by modernity, because it takes into account beliefs and practices that modernity rejects, but may still be of great value to us as humans. We must allow the poor, the exploited and the marginalized (those of the periphery ) to lead. The trans-modern thinker or actor develops liberation through democracy and reason. Both modern perspective that transcend modernity. Selectively picking things out of the modern reality that help us create a better world. Modernity, modernization, and modernism have been traditionally been associated with European culture ( the enlightenment, scientific method, individual autonomy ). The dominant narrative argues the modernity and modernization were exported to the rest of the world through colonialism and trade.
Conclusion : Modernity, modernization and modernism have traditionally been associated with European culture ( Enlightenment , scientific method, and individual autonomy ). The dominant narrative argues that modernity and modernization is exported to the rest of the world through conquest, colonialism and trade.
Jurgen Habermas - Defends modernity as exports of Europe. of its critics as eh sees a strong sense of value in modern values, democracy, and reasonable thought that all should serve us well and as such we have to think of these things as abstract ideas although we have to act through them in the modern world. To act within the project of the modern world we have to denote and exploit the life world.
Shmuel N. Eisenstadt- Does not dispute the idea that modernity and modernization and modernism is His point is that the anti modern modern and the ultimate forms of modernity itself, modernization happens differently in geographically and modern context. What they all have in common is the politicization of life. Eg. Algeria, soviet union, Germany. Politicization of life = being modern.
Enrique Dussel - Disputes the idea of europeans, is not entirely a fan of modernity and it is only means to exploitation through colonialism and capitalism. He is not entirely able or willing to give up modernity therefore he draws upon this concept of trans-modernity. We follow the victims of the modern design state, instead of trying to lead them.
INDEPENDENT STUDY/ NOTES ON TEXT & COURSE READINGS
Habermas NOTES ON TEXT
The Avant Garde collection of artists poised themselves under 'the presence of the past' in an attempt to disband the essence of modernity under the guise that modernity is the vice of the historicism of the past. Technically speaking, by moving into a new form of modernity as the foundations of postmodernity, the artists also draw an anticlimactic ideal displaying visions of anti-modernity in their attempt to divulge in further studies of the avant-garde. This movement also generated conceptual gravity for branches of post-modernity in areas such as post-Enlightenment, of postmodernity, of post-history and so forth, in short to a new kind of conservatism noted through the introduction to lead to further concepts regarding Neo-conservativism. Habermas claims that the root principle of modernity was to differentiate ( in the late fifth century ) the present Christian ideal from the pagan and Roman past.
On Cultural Modernity and Social Modernization
Drawn from a political and and intellectual confrontation, intellectual representatives of cultural modernity equates to the abstracted understanding of Neo-Conservatism. Neo-Conservatism displaces burdensome and unwelcome consequences of capitalist modernization and its effects on cultural modernity and the effects of hedonism through a lack of social identification, lack of obedience, narcissism and a withdrawal from society.
* Habermas argues that neoconservatism displays an inability to relate society to culture and displays pathological and dysfunctional syndromes e.g. hedonism, narcissism, a lack of social identity, a withdrawal from society through the means od status and achievement competition and anything that promotes a successful capitalist and modernized economy. ( Neoconservative doctrines - move society away from social integration and socialization and most importantly from progress)
Week 2: Postmodern / Meta Modernism
Modernity Critical Perspectives
Lyotard + The postmodern condition - A report on Knowledge
Timotheus Van Der Akken
Key Terms
Autonomy of the Individual - An idea that is generally understood to refer to the capacity to be one's own person, to live one's life according to reasons and motives that are taken as one's own and not the product of manipulative or distorting external forces.
Grown of Nation States - Through the idea of modernity comes a exchange of knowledge and the eradication of the obsolete nature of the small community for a greater overall picture. The concept of globalization starts to emerge bringing together nationstates and continental values that aim for a conceptually gratifying movement to achieve an overall greater good.
Liberation / Revolution - The notion of the independent and the understanding as a one's subjectivity separate from the entity of a class and the consciousness of self in the separation of the knowledge of the being from the mass consciousness of the clergy or through the concepts surrounding the church. Hegel also argues that Liberation is the human ability to conquer the spirit of nature in the understanding of self. Eg. Enlightement and later through Postmodernism.
Specialization of Knowledge - Modern development and belief the the progress of knowledge is the result of distanct and independent spheres, and the knowledge in one discipline has little connection with knowledge in another discipline. Thus specialists pursue their work in isolation from one another rather than as aspects of a unity or whole.
Increased Commerce - The intensification of knowledge though universality and through colonialism, the argument that societies require Modernity in order to develop the modernized structure and to therefore participate in the global economic sphere.
Colonialism/Decolonization - Colonialism as the colonized and therefore modernized state, the verifications of the state adopting and/ or rejecting concepts of modernity as a form of postmodernity in its ability to adopt and conform to concepts regarded through Enlightenment thinking such as Reason and Logic.
Valourization of Reason - The variables of moderniy that contribute to the ideas of economically justified labour, the marketable elements that synthesize the global economy. Note also a Hegelian/ Marxist term.
Utopianism - A modern concept that reinforces the linearity of modern thought, the ultimate state of being for society that represents an economically and philosophically just system.
Industrialization - Note the industrial revolution, various terms in Hegelian ideology that reinforce enlightenment thinking and the concepts of Modernity as society progress into a revolutionized and industrialized utilitarian state.
Modernity - The ideology of ideas and cultural production, donates a system of ideas. Modernity, a topic in the humanities and social sciences, is both a historical period, as well as the ensemble of particular socio-cultural norms, attitudes and practices that arose in the wake of the Renaissance—in the "Age of Reason" of 17th-century thought and the 18th-century "Enlightenment".
&
Modernism - Economic structure, computation of values that we use to compensate/ associate with modernity. Modernism is both a philosophical movement and an art movement that, along with cultural trends and changes, arose from wide-scale and far-reaching transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. IDEOLOGY & IDEAS Cultural Activity/ Production of MODERNITY, product of modernity.
Barbara Kruger
Eg. Postmodern Art
Anti consumerist perspective, feminist perspective, interested in advertisements and re-appropriation. Counter-cultural and against the mainstream cultural production. Language and imagery. Re-appropriation, taking the laungage of advertising, visual language of the stereotypical patriarchal culture. Creates the collage-like works, takes the elements to create a message that runs counter. Postmodern art which is a product of postmodernism, is art that takes on a feminist stance, appropriating visual language of other artists, often we see within postmodern art an attitude that is sarcastic or ironic, humorous. Krugers work often fits and becomes a good example of the work that we are talking about.
Modern Art - Is associated with earnestness, honestly or spirituality. A modern painting, eg. Rothko's paintings are essentially colour seventies, washes of colour which are intended to hold the viewer in rapture. Taken outside of the everyday consciousness, and hopefully if the modern work of art is doing its job has a static or transcendence experience. Out of body experience.
Postmodern Art- Rejects that idea and places the viewer, instead of being a passive receiver of enlightenment, the postmodern work of art addresses the viewer, confronts the viewer and shocks the viewer into an active interpretive process or an active engagement with the work. Re-appropriation, an attitude that is sarcastic/ ironic.
NOTES ON LECTURE
Modernity - Generally thought of as a break from tradition, & out of this break what gets embraced and what is facilitated/ nurtured ( concept of modernity )is the autonomy of the individual. Related to the liberation of the individual from the restraints of tradition.
This relationship between the individual gets tied to the liberation of entire peoples and therefore the idea of revolution. The modern subject that the individuals are no longer autonomous, we also now think of ourselves as liberated of the exploited. No one should be in a position of exploitation.
Under the condition of Modernity
Growth of Nation States - Smaller municipalities are consolidated to larger nation states, capitalism and global trade, in order to produce a stronger concept of democratic governance that can encompass the diverse range of ethnic backgrounds through a kind of organized nation state.
Develop some of the ideas from last week
Habermas- Specialization of knowledge through our understanding of how modernity works. Accumulation of knowledge that is more efficient that is increased efficiency, increased commerce and capitalism. Linked as aspects of modernity as well.
Liberation linked to Decolonization of former colonies, colonialization related to the rise of nation states and the development of capitalism and the development of pre-existing globalized trade groups is also a part of modernity. Colonialization and decolonialization are thought of as aspects of modernity. Secularizatoin- break away from the church is the process of modernization, linked to the autonomy of the individual, freeing oneself from the traditional authorities and also the changes in governance and governmental structure.
Change of values associated w Enlightenment and the European tradition of Modernity, Utopianism and the industrialization in the European context go hand and hand. Industrialize and make the economy more efficient are used to build a more sustainable state.
Utopia - Idealized place, a perfect world. Think of a place that has no strife, no exploitation, everyone is cared for and everyone contributes and the world is run without a hitch. the perfect product of our progressive and scientific and industrialized idea of how to improve on human life.
All aspects of modernity, chararistics of modernism ( the ideology that supports modernism )
Modernism gets promoted specifically at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century where modernism becomes the catchword of cultural production. Arts, writers, politicians are all using the word modernism as using a way of building a new utopia. A culture that will progress the world toward the utopia.
Chararistics of modernism, the creation of a humanistic universal culture, out of the European enlightenment :
Reason - Is an aspect of human consciousness, that is accessible to all but requires development. Reason is accessible to all and is universal so we all have access to reason.
If we develop our Reason we will come to a point at which, that we come to an agreement in consensus in moral issues and in other issues as well. The idea here is that we try to build a neutral culture, that is not culturally specific, is global and cosmopolitan ( melting pot). difference is welcome into the modernism in order to enrich the culture although to also assimilate to it. One reason is emphasized as modernism, split between mind and body. The body being devalued the mind plays in Reason, and because Reason is the most important element of Utopia, it is used to dominate the mind and body. In creating new modern culture we are moving society further and further into utopia, we enact this movement toward to utopia. The work of art is used to create new forms and ideas and the creation of manifestos and the world of design works to create new forms of living to the modern world disciplining and shaping the subject into the kind of being that modernity requires.
The creation of a humanistic neutral human culture out of the idea of Reason ( a concept of enlightenment ) human consciousness that is accessible to all that requires development.
Accessable to all and is universal and we all have access to reason, if we develop our sense of reason we develop a point in which we are able to overcome our consensus of moral issues and other issues as well.
The idea here is that in many cases we are working to build a neutral culture. Global and cosmopolitan, difference is welcomed into the concept of modernism to enrich and to assimilate.
When reason is emphasized :
Reason : Split between mind and body - the body being devalued, the mind takes up reason and because reason is the most important aspect of humanity - drives towards utopia. Used to dominate the body. In creating this modern culture we are moving society towards utopia in a variety of ways, the world of art participates though creating new forms and new ideas through the creation of manifestos, the world of design through new forms of living. Disciplining the subject, shaping the subject into the kind of being that modernity requires. Political thinkers and philosophers are engaged to modernism in building a culture that is responsive to the needs of modernity.
Le Corbusier - The modern design world is taken up through the idea of internationalism. Architectural design and urban planing. Modern design world through internationalism through architecture. The modernism as a whole, universal and neutral culture that is being developed and embraced has internationalist aspirations. In the two different strains in the 20th century in the capitalist world and in the soviet communist world both different views of modernist economics.
Economics - Embrace the same values, although enact them in different ways. Science is revered, objectivity connected to science and the scientific method. The idea of progress that progresses over time gets better and better, builds on its successors. Throughout the international modernism, an emphasis on good order, an ordered society. Rationality, the use of transcendence and that the individual can be taken out of their own perspective, elevated to place where they can appreciate rationality. Universality, the idea of absolute truth. European enlightenment rationality is an absolute truth, the more we work towards to developing our capacity for Reason then the closer we get to Absolute Truth. The contradiction here is the comparison between the internationalist movement is that we are flattening out, to assimilate difference to the preexisting idea to what modernity is.
Postmodernism - Wether or not we can differentiate postmodernism. Often kind of mocking the modern, taking the elements of modernity and modernism and showing them up as being kind of ridiculous. Self important or unachievable.
Postmodernism is a critical look at modernism, the stance that is culturally specific which is a culturally historical place that rejects the idea of universalism. The international and universal movement. Very suspicious of modernism because it embraces them to the concept of universality.
Modernism and modernity thinks of itself as a force of information. A process that is freeing individuals and groups, postmodernism critique as authoritarianism. The modern logic of enlightenment philosophy and discourse of progress and utopia is a part of how we ended up with people like Hitler, Moussolini and Stalin.
Modern denies the mind the bodily senses, postmodernism denies bodily aspects. The aspects of bodily experience escapes our rational thinking. Postmodernism looks at reason under the guise of modernity and sees it as irrationality. The postmodern critiques of modernity breaks through from reason efficiency by going over the top to the point where they themselves are illogical and irrational. Postmodernism is also bound up through capitalism where modernism is bent into colonialism into exploitation. Critical of consumerism. Subjects that get produced by consumer culture, all concepts of postmodern, ...
Sherry Levigne - ReAppropriation of Duchamp's Fountain correlative to Dada, ironic, unexpected, humorous. Anti establishment art movement, and seen as a quintessentially modern movement, dedicated to the autonomy of the individual and the critique of society and liberation though ideals.
The postmodern artists were embracing artists of their ancestors and were critical of their associations that had been made. Sherry Levigne is taking on the humour in countercultural moves E.g.. urinal and the fountain.
She needs to elevate it one step further, through building up the urnial and covering it with gold, to revere the modern icon of DuChamps fountain to pay tribute to the modern icon.
Postmodern art = dual address
Revering and mocking modernity, as mocking the emphasis of modern art.
The critique of modernism largely comes through the different discourses through postmodern artists and critics.
BREAK
Articles & Lecture
Lyotard : Idea of progress in the Meta Narrative. Lyotard is saying that science observes describes and categorizes, a mode of research and exploration that observes the natural world and the social world in philosophy in a mode of research in observation and categorization.
Because it is observation description and categorization science is closed language, cannot verify its own knowledge other then by using its own principles. What that means is that science requires something outside of itself besides the justice it produces.
What is the purpose behind this economic juxtaposition. Lyotard says that science needs metanarrative, it requires purpose meaning that produced this knowledge. Ties science to a deeper meaning or a greater project. Two narratives that tie into this idea of modernity as embarking on progress through talking. One of the books that leotard makes reference to is Hegel.
A theory of world spirit, Hegel is writing at a time of great upheval revolutions erupt around the world and is very enthusiastic. Thinks that evolution is tied to the development of individual autonomy and the liberation of individuals and the liberation of humanity itself.
What Hegel argues is that what political turmoil is, consists of one of the most contemporary manifestos of the human spirit. Throughout history, human beings are building upon previous generations, pursuit of knowledge, self consciousness, becoming increasingly consciousness of their beings in the world and the human race is becoming conscious of what it means to be human - to be human is to be reasonable. Capacity for Reason.
The reason why we are understanding that developing that Reason, is that Reason is going to liberate us from nature. Human beings are animals and are driven by passions, animals needs, the need for food water shelter, Hegel argues that we are moving though history we are learning how to master our animal natures through developing our reason.
We liberate ourselves from nature, so Lyotard is drawing on Hegel, as Hegel is essentially delivering to modern subjects, one of the greatest metanarratives that we have. Within the modern era, one of the key metanarratives is the key element that we put the knowledge to use. We develop knowledge, progressing society, all to become more human and to liberate ourselves from our own human nature, and from the nature outside. Liberating/ Freeing ourselves from nature.
The metanarrative provided by Karl Marx, chronicler of capitalism, built upon Hegel's theory of ephemeral universality and world spirit, that is therefore reinterpreted by Marx.
Marx in the communist manifesto and in relation to communism is the rational development of enlightenment thinking in the reasonable self conscious individual who develops their self existence in a specific class, their position in the world and works to change and revolutionize it.
This understanding of self consciousness is also the end of exploitation, the rationale of communism means resources are shared equally. End of awareness of their place in a various class, works to change and revolutionize. Purpose of consciousness of self, end of exploitation. Marx Argues : the rational development of human society is communism so that no one will be exploited through the use of others. Justifies knowledge as it liberates us from exploitation. Eg. Religious exploitation.
Marx = Political
Hegel's and the understanding of knowledge
Hegel + Marx are not anti - enlightenment
The enlightenment is a very important part of European modernism. Modernity gets off the ground, and the enlightenment is also a product of earlier modern developments. Promotes modernity.
The enlightenment is a touchstone for European Modernity.
The young Hegelians are a school of thinking, a movement is a philosophy of theory that gets taken into action, that marxism had taken up. Art movements are grouped together as a group of theory.
Movements are a progress, and a transformation of a better world. The movement prior to the modern thinking. Why does this happen, why do we loose sight of these aren't.
Economic reasons, why we have lost faith in progress, in either our liberation for nature or exploitation. Lyotard comes up with the easiest example for humorous sake. Internet report form 1981, what life is like before the internet.
A news report from the USA about the internet and the technological revolutions, and how it downloads the revolution. The point at which the internet enters peoples homes.
Lyotards report, data storage and the transmission of the systems of the internet transforms the meaning of the internet.
What Lyotard means by this is that knowledge is dispersed in unlocatable storage units, that is proliferating to this Information Age. Any kind of narrative, we no longer have a model of the knowledge production that no longer works.
A science that is unified for one unit of everything that tis no longer possible of us, information is not getting made into knowledge. Not being justified by a meta-narrartive of progress.
Lyotard is skeptical because he did not think that he was able to produce technologies that would make sense of the information. The postmodern status of knowledge.
We had to give up an earnest sense of absolute truth, multitude of information, knowledge is multiple, is not filtered to one theory, one system of knowledge. If we do not have this one system of knowledge we have to revert to play.
We are changing our attitude to knowledge, it becomes more playful and experimental. Realities that are made up of multiple shifting language games through changing value spheres.
Multiple and shifting language games : Habermas & Value Spheres
In the university context, Lyotard changes its means to discipline. Each discipline has its own series of rules that can intervene. The state is no longer the most powerful player. States have gotten out of the game of research, the state no longer has that resting state of interest.
Each discipline has its own language game that has its own set of rules. Here in the postmodern status of knowledge, the state is no longer the most powerful player. No longer interested in investing in the future.
No longer concerned with the prestige with producing knowledge because it isn't giving us the power that it once gave the nation. The idea of progress and the contributing to the concept of universal progress on behalf of the country. No longer concerned with developing that type of prestige of that type of power. Metanarrarative about progress, that type of progress and humanity as a whole. With pride contribute and have some respect. If the state no longer believes that this no longer has that funding.
Corporations that fund the research that happen at these universities. No longer foster corporate bonds, unites people through class consciousness. The postmodern condition is also characterized though technology that has come do to dominate the culture. Lack of precise knowledge, it is much easier to disperse information.
Allowing us to communicate information to people. Not making it easier to judge the quality of information that we are dispersing, efficiency of dispersal of information, new immediate consideration of science. Performativity ( not a new metanarrative ) Am I conforming to the rules.
Am I contributing to the system, overarching narrative, a system of profit. Stepped into the gap.
How performativity is judged, are speed and efficiency. How efficiency would be here, how much research can I produce without too much overhead, the creation of monetized knowledge. The utility of knowledge created. Usefulness of knowledge created. Performativity, making the world as it exists run smoothly, not imagining a revolutionized world.
Lyotard, why the metanarratives that exist, without them why things would be changed. Something else that would keep us from judging us the same thing. No progress that we're working towards. When we're talking about the modern, and something that is new means that it is helping us to progress.
We are then going to go further on that pathway, although under the definitions of postmodern conditions there is nothing that is considered to be New, we are not interested in the New trough the postmodern condition. Catchword for Postmodernism is innovation.
Innovation is about small increments of change that ultimately override the attempt to change the overriding structure. Ultimately the modern condition we are trying to disrupt the present. In the postmodern condition we are trying to make our present more efficient. Out of this conclusion this idea permanence has always been an illusion.
Easier to be transient and ephemeral.
Postmodern condition in the Information Age.
Language games need to cross pollinate one another we can't develop any metanarratives.
Not necessarily a morally right or morally correct means to research. Increasingly turning towards
Modernity and Postmodernity
Postmodern ideas critiquing Modernity
- Critique of Progress ' what is better ' critical of progressive movements, a lot of horrible things are done under the name of progress.
- This embrace of progress as an ideology have unquestionably supported violent movements and even genocide, criticized by postmodernity
- Modern scientific attitudes
- The idea of universality and neutrality critiqued by postmodern thinkers
- Singular subject with a singular voice, postmodern thinkers as a split subject or dispersed.
- No singular identity that unifies us. No system of knowledge that is organized into a set narrative.
- European superiority, some kind of element of modernity as a kind of invention of Europe.
- Some things that you can come upon are the ideas of construction of bodies and phenomenon as an assemblage of parts. We are assemblages, constructions as opposed to singular unified beings.
Another thing that postmodern thinkers embrace is thinking, order, multiplicity opposed to a singular unity, hybritidey, appropriation and irony.
Attempt to separate out modernity and post modernity, none of the ideas that are postmodern thinkers are separated from modern ideas.
The modern ideas as a self as a construction through the ideas of Sigmund Freud that can critique these theories, and that the subject is split between conscious and subconscious elements.
All of the elements that critique modern ideas, that grow out of modern ideas. Modern culture and postmodern culture that delete one another. Again the multiple modernities and multiple theories of post modernity, modernism and postmodernism. Radical break in historical break in historical separation between modernity and post modernity. In the attempt to engage with modern values nostalgia is something that we should NOT engage in.
Postmodernism is something that we should critique in modernity, the heart of of modernity is actually critique which is why postmodernism is at the heart of modernity.
Not all transformation has progress, unless you want to fully embrace the modern viewpoint. What we want to understand in seeing is an aesthetic shift, modernism or postmodernism, an aesthetic production that seems to reference both of them.
Meta Modern oscillates between modernism and postmodernism and postmodernism. Binary opposites that we are listing, oscillating between modern and the postmodernism. Not a balance but a pendulum swing, pulls like binary opposites but between a number of different poles, gravity and irony over all balances and wild swings of erratic personality.
A style, not work that looks the same and not all of these works Raymond Williams
( after modernism ) " a structure of feeling " that embraces both elements of modernity and post modernity.
Raymond Williams developed this idea of a structure of feelings at the height of the 20th century, different in media, no discernible interest between the person making the content, a sense of nostalgia, a kind of moral character although we cannot say there any direct interest here. What is happening here is a counter movement to the dominant narrative that is kind of mainstream or a kind of counter mainstream that is not fully developed interest but an aesthetic feeling that can be articulated more fully. They are trying to identify all of these works as kind of emergent in language yet that is an aesthetic affect.
January 23. 01.2020
The use of logic and reason, logic being the concept of using the idea of reasoning and the capacity of the individual to question authority to bring something to light and to take on the responsibility for their own body or sense of being. Kant praises individual self thought as maturity.
An example of immaturity, would be an individual to comply with the idea of the reader absolving in the book. The importance of self consciousness and to be aware of ones own positioning and ones own bias, to make decisions blindly and to have others to made decisions for you. An immature idea for example would to be going along with whatever the book transcribed and not making any rational logical argument as to what the book describes. The capacity to make critical judgement to make critical decisions to counter the ideals that authority declares to be truth. An immature attitude towards text is to take a critical perspective on the text, to use ones own sense of Reason to describe what the individuals perspective is on the ideal. When the news is recording something ( for example ) taking a press release from the government, and reading what the government is claiming through the press release, something that Kant would believe to be very important.
Kant's argument about taxes ...
kant separates the public use of reason and the private use of reason. The public use of reason was very important because there is discourse and debate. We can't actually know what truth is, through the books that were reading or through discourse with human beings. Private reason ( eg, go to work and do your job ) the use of reason within an establishment, an established institution that has policies, a public facing institution that has to maintain a certain integrity for the institution to be valued as a society. We use reason in a more constricted sense, out in the public, we use a public sense of reason, when we are in our private sense of environment we use a private sense of reason. In our freedom of consciousness, our ability to find our own thought, the freedom to think in the domestic sphere. We are free to have open discussion, publicly there is a level of conservatism. In public Kant says that there should be free thought and new way to work, eg a pastor can openly debate in public the sense of god, or any number of rules that the church holds that its members must define. When that pastor is preaching in a church or congregants, Kant says that the pastor has to hold the line, and represent the institution.
Back to Taxes :
We are expected to pay taxes, the government tells us to so we do it and it benefits us because it benefits society for the better. The discourse based around taxes eg. what the government does with the money, what the taxes go towards, becomes an immature act is obeying authority with no critical perspective. To make sure that we are acting as mature enlightened individuals, the conversation revolving around taxes is integral to develop our understanding of society. Eg. If the government is unreasonable, and the government is not open to debate then we cannot have reason, we cannot critique. Kant praises Frederick of Russia for allowing people to have these debates in public.
If we look at the united states, where the government does not conform to reasonable discourse, it becomes more difficult for people who want to have a consensus revolving around critical debate. If you were to have Republicans and Democrats in a room together, then there would be no room for critical debate.
Kant becomes almost overly concerned with reform, and maintaining authority eg. praising a monarch. The use of reason in critique that begins to question all authority is getting the wrong idea from the text. Although if you take Kant's word for it then that again is not an example of enlightenment. If one challenged his outlook on enlightenment, he would welcome the challenge because he would be able to juxtapose his own idea of enlightenment to another. He has faith in the fact that we are going to come to the same conclusion, once we develop our reason and begin to question authority then we will come to the same kinds of conclusions, which is a leap of faith. Grand european narrative. The bias that is included in the text, Frederick Douglas and his narrative as life as a slave, like the way that the slave enters discourse through the trajectory of private and public reason. The individual subject to this type of exploitation means that some individuals have a better understanding and capability of developing their elements in their development of Reason and enlightenment. Eg. Eurocentric bias. For Kant, this is the way that he works around this problem, everyone has the capacity to reason. Some have the natural propensity to reason so they are more advanced. The more we are engaged in public discourse, and the way the way the boundaries are crossed, the more people will be able to develop the capacity for reason. Enlightenment thinkers & post enlightenment thinkers, reason is progressive. We cannot have reason, and we cannot just take a pill and have reason, we have to engage in developing reason with one another. One person can have a richer understanding of what is reasonable and what is unreasonable due to their depth and understanding. We are contributing to humanity, this problem for Kant, there is a hierarchy within the access to education. He states that there are some who have a better capacity for reason, who will sheppard the others along.
Tons of Kantian scholars, who are reading and writing about Kant. These kinds of issues, Kant would hope that they would have a better understanding of reasoning. If we outright reject Kant's philosophies, then he would say that would be an immature, because rejects instead of reconsiders.
Emmanuel Eze
Scholar of Kant and a critic of Kant, following in the Kantian tradition. Training and a strong philosophical background. he uses Kant's philosophy to critique philosophy itself. Its talking about the theories of reason from the enlightenment, he is also interested in figuring out what we can salvage from philosophies, how do we go about this. Eze is an african- american scholar, starting life in africa and dying in america in 1987. European tradition, who has life experience outside of the european tradition.
How does Kant justify this idea of one universal reason that unites us all as human beings, when we exercise this reason as part of the human race we will come to consensus about what the truth is. it is already skewed in a bias as a northern european perspective, although the way that Kant justifies this idea is that because we are human beings, we perceive the world a certain way and we see the world a certain way. The more we develop or capacity to think the more we come to gether as humanity.
Kant's copernican revolution
We are on a planet that revolves around the sun, before copernicus the sun hypothetically revolves around the earth. Before this there was Kant's copernican revolution, he flipped the way we normally think about the way we develop concepts. The way we perceive concepts and the way we think. The normally we think that we produce knowledge in the world, kant flips this around, Knowledge doesn't come from objects in the world, instead it comes from the mental representation of the world in the way that we develop things in our mind. The mind produces representation of things in the world, when we come up with a concept eg. chair. then we have knowledge of what this is, before we have a concept of this thing we don't know what it is. What we don't have a name for something, we don't have knowledge about it. No matter what language you're using, you are still using concept, we all make concepts, therefore we all reason, therefore reason is universal the more we develop our capacity for reason. If we all make concepts which is the basis of all reason, and reason is universal, then the more we develop our capacity for reason. We come into reason and develop our reason, we can come to consensus and we will lessen conflict. We don't have access to objects in the world, it doesn't matter what our material surroundings are we are still thinking in concepts. Eventually we are still coming to the same understandings.
Eze deals with this problem of Kant's critique,
Eze brings up concepts similar to those discussed in class. The importance of critique and the importance of reason, not willing to throw out the ideas of reason, if we reject reason then we might find ourselves within no reason in our capacity to discourse to understand one another and to conform to any idea of reason. Works to preserve philosophy. The problem is that he says there are cultures all over the world, each culture thinks in concepts and the challenge is to find reasonable discourse that respects these differences. The notion of universality that Kant uses and wants to critique it, divorced from our everyday objects of the world. Deeply tied to our embodied experience of the world, we cannot create a concept without experiencing this thing, in an embodied fashion, so one can see the object in the world, although until the individual is able to understand the meaning of the object in the world ( eg chair ) feeling comfortable, this embodied experience in the chair helps me conform to the understanding of the chair and the experience of sitting in the chair. Eze is saying the reason why and how the process of mediation between what the body is experiencing and what the senses are experiencing // and what the mind is experiencing or producing as a concept to cover the experiential feeling. Eze says this concept is important because it covers the poles of identity and diversity, mind body experience. Exist and experience the diversity, individualism and subjectivity. The embodied sense of what it means to be in the world and how it helps us exist in the world. We need concepts to talk about the way things separate us and the way things join us together. If we have no concepts we have no reason, we have no link between the private experience and the public experience of others. Eze : Defending the need for reason, the need for critique, recognizing the elements of Kant's philosophy that cant work, and are problematic. Kant wants everyone to assimilate to the same way of thinking. Eze says that people cannot assimilate. We do not have individuality if we do not assimilate, we have to come up with a way of thinking about Reason that preserves identity and reason.
Why is Maturity Important to the project of Enlightenment
The enlightenment requires us to keep questioning, autonomous individuals to keep thinking for ourselves. Productive to meaning and knowledge if we do not question.
Do you think that Foucault supports the idea immaturity in Kant's idea of enlightenment
The Modern Additive : The heroiziation of the present, comes out of baudelaire and talks specifically about the Painter of Modern Life. The modern subject is one who heroises the present by extracting the eternal from the ephemeral.
What baudelaire meant is that there is an eternal sense of beauty, what is heroic and therefore eternal. There is an eternal sense of beauty that underlines these types of things, that doesn't present itself in the same way. Ever. Over time, beauty looks different, it never stays the same. Part of the modern incorporation is the idea of the new. What is modern is what is most current, modern styles are those which are just hitting the streets now. There is a transformation that what is considered to be beautiful, and there is a sense of what is meant to be beauty. There is fashion which is a temporal beauty. The modern person is fixated on the present, and attuned to it, inventing themselves in relation to it. They are not looking at it in regards to a fad which makes it big and what makes it important. One who is able to paint contemporary bodies and contemporary fashions because the modern individual has the capacity to see the world through the eyes of a child which is to see the world with fresh eyes every time.
Foucualts argument as to what is to be modern ( in the 80's ) is different then what Kant thought it would be what is Modern in the 1800's. Talking about public discourse at the time, chronicling, the copyhouses through europe were going strong. Kant is talking about the coalescence of enlightenment for a greater emphasis on scientific discourse and the public discourses to meet in public houses to debate the ideas of the day. Talking constantly, foucault is saying we have a different sense as to what it is to be a modern individual now. What we preserve from his philosophy, what makes sense for us to let go of. Foucaults answer is to take a look of Kants private public bountary, Kant protects certain barriers of authority, places where we should not be questioning. Foucault is arguing that in our current culture, we are more engaged in challenging the structure then what kant would feel comfortable with.
The modern individual exercises extreme attention to what is real, what is real what is happening now and what is of importance now. Ephemeral and fleeting is what we should be paying attention to. Exercising extreme attention to what is real. Respects this reality and violates it, what is real, the institutions that transform our society, eg church the institution. Kant argues that these institutions needed to obeyed and respected.
Foucault says that we need to respect these realities, they are real and powerful although he also wants to violate it. The 1980's is a place where we can push against the authorities. Reality is constriction and it is a something that can be transformed and changed, radical changes. In order to do this there has to be changes to the self, small things that can be transformed and that can be re-invented. We can reinvent ourselves, it is a creative process.
Research assignment : Concise Outline - Base the assignment on interests, outline for the class due ( 02.27.2020 )
January 30 Modernity, Critical Perspectives
Dialectic of Enlightenment
Dialectic of Enlightenment, the standard textbook definition of what enlightenment is. The age of enlightenment is thought of as an a-historical period. A geographic region, through northern and western europe. Traditionally the age of enlightenment is the 17th century to the 19th century through europe, and was a humanistic movement. A modern attitude that related to enlightenment, comes from the geographic historical areas through europe. A drive to univeralize knowledge, many people working together to provide humanity with the knowledge and wisdom that humanity needs to progress an enlightenment value, to get better, to improve society for human beings to become more rational and to become more independent of nature. Enlightenment values pursue liberty ( the greatest amount of freedom possible ), anarchist, kant was interested in increasing the amount of freedom for individuals. Another value is the notion of equality, an equal society where the enlightenment, people who were thinking about the ideal of equality, for example, marxism ( the end of social classes ), an end to arbitrary power, eg monarchs would be enlightened, not just inheriting their values through leadership. The sovereignty of reason. Maturity is about autonomy, independent reason to dichotomize ones own principles and ones own reactions. Secularity, holding sway of spiritual matters and ideas. Another value of the enlightenment was the democratic form of governance. Modern values, when we talk about modernity in the european context we also talk about enlightenment.
For the enlightenment philosophers, reason is not just an individual project. Kant argues for the public use of reason, because by contributing to public discourse you contribute to mankind. People participate in this idea, and the participation helps develop it. (Progress) The development of reason through open debate was not an individual context, not just the independent idea of reason and of the truth. As an individual you are contributing to mankind that people participate in, and the participation helps develop it. By contributing to public discourse you contribute to the progress of mankind and to society. the enlightenment invests in the power of humanity over nature ( through dominance and exploitation ) empirical observation. The accumulation of knowledge by scientists,The goal of what they were doing was accumulating knowledge, the enshrinement of the human as the greatest of power over nature on earth, so that we can use nature for our own purpose and needs. Using ad developing our use of reason will free us from our dependence on nature. Our use of nature for our own interests and needs. Using Reason will free us from our dependence on nature. We learn how to use nature's forces to further our own progress and position in the world. Progress is about the individual moving through various levels of consciousness
The goal of enlightenment was to snuff out superstition. When Kant theories how the human mind works and how reason functions, he thought of imagination involved in exercising reason, the reason and was predominant over the imagination. He was worried about the kind of things that happen when the imagination is combined with the power of nature to create superstition. For enlightenment thinkers, what was important was that our thoughts remained reasonable. For superstition, the idea that we can control nature through prayer, or that we can communicate through god through objects. The enlightenment was afraid of superstition, when human beings succumb to these thoughts, human beings were being placed under the domination of nature. The idea is that we are no longer subject to domination of nature, and that we are in control.
Because reason is sovereign, because reason has this overall power. The more we develop rason over as humanity, the less we are susceptible to authority, myth and magic. All of the problems we have ( the belief in magic ) the belief in myth, then reason is going to sweep the superstition, magic and mythology hiding in the dark corners out of our reach. The reason why we refer to the age of enlightenment, is because we are shining a light into the darkness has power over us and will come into our dominion through the pursuit of knowledge and reason.
Horkheimer & Adorno : The Frankfurt School
Amongst the frankfurt school, Adorno was a composer, musicologist, philosopher and anthropologist. They worked together through the 20's + 40's analysing contemporary issues through a broad range of sources. Works of marx, freud, hegel, kant and nietzsche. They were also engaged in anthropology and other kinds of contemporary philosophy as well. Opposing fascism, although they were broad in their understanding of the term fascist. Eg. Governments in Spain, Germany and in Italy ( at different times ) Critical of capitalism in america and state planned economy in the USSR. They were invested in the ideas in the papers although they were not invested in the institutional politics sociological ideas of economics. The first institution was open in 1918 in the weimar republic, forced to shut down in 1933 by Nazi Germany. Most of the members fled, many of them were jewish or communists so they were therefore targeted by the nazis. When the Frankfurt school was founded, there was an intensive liberal culture. World war 1 transformed europe, principalities centralized by a monarch and maybe a few democratic states, although germany was never a democratic state. A new democratic state was the reformed ( Weimar Republic ), socialist in their names. Access to education, hygiene and sanitation projects. Flourishing of critical discourse, art and design, new ideas, so many political parties that the democracy was crippled because of the diversity in thought and print. One of the reasons that the weimar republic became unstable was because of the richness of daily life. The republic was broke and therefore unsustainable, inflation rose to the point where salaries were incapable of supporting them. Alot of prostitution and crime, polarization of parties, co-leased into communist or fascist organizations, street fights, executions and violence. Experiment in liberal democracy became very violent. Eventually formed a coalition government,adolph hitler was appointed to chancellor in the coalition government. A few weeks after hitler was appointed to chancellor the legislative government was attacked by the communist government. The state was declared a state of emergency and the other parties were discriminated in favor of the nazi party.
What the nazis did was implemented a planned state economy, economic ideas were close to the socialist principles. Took over private companies and ran them through the state. Promoted a eugenics program, promoted arian race, jewish and homosextualas, mental and physically ill were also executed in the nazi german state. Germany was home to a number of great enlightenment thinkers, Germany had a tradition of critical philosophy and some public political debate. Moving towards the direction of the democratic state. Irrational state of fascism.
Adorno & Horkheimer were looking at contemporary philosophers in germany, a tendency towards that were being reflected in the nazi party. Example the work that was being dispelled by Heidegger. They did not believe that enlightenment to reason was wholly innocent, they did not believe that the idea of enlightenment was pure, the irrational ideas that were being played out by fascist germany. The idea that we regressed to animal impulses away from the pure human nature of reason that was achieved in enlightenment was not something that they accept.
Nietzsche makes convreterial claims towards ubermensch, and the nazis read nietzsche controversially. His sister read and rewrote his work to suit the nazi party as she herself was a member and pursued his work after he had succumbed to madness and was institutionalized. Nietzsche also incorporated the greeks as a means to philosophical basis.
In 1933 the Frankfurt school closed, Adorno was one of the first to fleet to england where he enrolled at Oxford as a student, reconvened with Horkheimer in 1938 and then in 1941 they went to southern california and wrote critical articles about " the culture industry" in north america, watching movies and developing tropes.
Reading Response on the Dialectic of Enlightenment : Chapter ii
Reason can free us from the irrational. adorno and horkheimer were modern thinkers, they were in support of the idea that reason could liberate us from the irrational. They were not rejecting reason, however this idea that the enlightenment could free us from nature ( was problematic ) for them. The reason why this is problematic was that enlightenment rationality continues because of this idea of domination of exploitation and rationality. Recognizes that we are dominated by nature, reacts in fear to domination and begins to reinstate domination of nature ( the very thing that dominated us ). The domination of exploitation of the natural world, the nature of humans and the domination of other humans who are elements of nature themselves, and the exploitation of ourselves as we are also subject to nature. Reason has not separated us from myth ( according to horkheimer)
Dia = a prefix to pass through ( a sense of movement ) implied in dialectic. Not a static term. Dialogue
Dialectic = An argument that juxtaposes ideas and seeks to come to some resolution of this conflict in order to overcome the truth.
An argument that takes idea ( a) and idea (b) ( opposed to one another ) they clash and oppose conflict.
The two opposed ideas are discussed back and forth from one to the other. A movement in 2 directions, mediation and conflict in different ways.
Goal of the dialectic is to resolve the two terms. Results in the relation of the term, the dominance of one term over the other. The truth and the other is false and is taming the idea of truth, through the process of dialogue in conversation.
Hegel and Marx and Lyotard 37:22 ( metanarratives ) wtf Postmodern Condition
The metanarrative, the two metanarratives between Marx and Hegel. Lyotard said these were the ideas that were justified in knowledge and history. The other narrative was marx's dialectical materialism. Humanity progresses greater freedom than necessity. The more we move through history they more independant we are from nature.
Marx / Hegel
They're both narratives that justify our knowledge
Hegel : The Philosophy of History
Theiss: How history works. Humanity progresses by achieving greater freedom from necessity, bare survival. The more we move through history the more consciousness we develop the more independent of nature we are.
Marx : Dialectical of Materialism
The claim that we are moving from a state of exploitation and domination that is in a classed society (some people are dominated and exploited by others ) into a state of liberation from conflict & inequality. In dialectic of materialism is a society divided by two classes ( bourgeois & and proletariat )
Bourgeois : Owns the factories, buying and selling ect
Proletariat : Selling labour in order to survive
Hegel's philosophy of history follows a dialectical progress, historical change, that moves from point a to point b in a progressive line, this process happens as a dialectic. What this means is that historically, we have a certain concept of freedom. There is another concept of freedom that is opposed to it. Therefore we have 2 different ideas of what freedom is, we dialogue them and come to a resolution. We then encounter another idea of what freedom is. the process continues till we get to the end of where the dialectic works. For hegel, this process of the dialectical resolution is the end of what we are progressing towards. For hegel, this process of the dialectical resolution is the alt Hegel, the preservation, when we have idea *a and *b this is what freedom is, the old idea of freedom is the new idea of freedom. The old idea of freedom is never really falsified. The other idea of freedom is advancement. The entire thing is preserved in itself, freedom gets richer and more advanced as we move through history. Passing over ( dia ) and passing through is Hegel.
Marx's idea that we are moving progressively of exploitation of freedom, social freedom and classes. marx is in someways, staying with hegel's understanding of the dialectic and is rejecting what he is talking about. All about consciousness and the ideas that we are having, marx's main criticism of hegel is that it is all in his head. Hegel claims to think about the object and the idea of matter, the contemporary world and what is happening politically and economically. He adapts it, as a concept, seperate from the natural world. What marx does, through social classes ( the bourgeois and proletariat ) there used to be more various classes although now there are only owners, and workers.
Without concepts of freedom, there are workers and the owners ( two forces in dialectic ) the owners, who own factories, machines and materials. They rule by dominating the proletariat, exploiting the proletariat by paying them the lowest amount possible. The wage earning workers are the only ones making stuff, just the owners that benefit. Once members of the proletariat and poverty is not a desperation of failure, because of the masses of other people like them, then they develop class consciousness. They are going to realize that they can seize the means to production from the bourgeoisie that can create a classless society. The proletariat can seize the bourgeoise and therefore create a classless society and can therefore benefit though fulfilling their needs.
Adorno and Horkheimer would not be considered postmodernists, lyotard and the others who are critical of modernity are part of the growing number of postmodernity thinkers. Critical of modernity, questioning the metanarratives in the 1940's, the metanarratives are not working.
The arguing that by the early 20th century what we are starting to see is a global transformation of the global and economic spheres are controlled by state intervention and economies. Capitalist states in economies, fascist economies in germany and spain and the planned economies in soviet block. The capitalist in america and teh fascists in european economies are used in similar economic models, the economic life of the nation, essentially able to stabilize the economic nation. Equalise nation, people suffer less under capitalism. What that has done between the bourgeois and proletariat, the conflict that fuels the dialectic of what marx is writing.
The workers could only literally afford to buy a roof over their head and food so that they could get to the factories and the bourgeoisie were very rich, many people were living the lives of the petty bourgeoisie.
The workers were abandon to their suffering because there were social contracts, food programs and housing programs, capitalist states ect that were abandon at this time.
The 20th century, modern society were ruled around the unconscious adherence to rules around the market, how commodities were bought and sold based around an open market. After state intervention the consciously state planned economy was no longer active.
State planned economy ( ushered in after marxists society ) Should have been a classless society. Subjects are receiving monetary from the state the subjects receive monetary from the state ( authoritarianism) through fascist, communist and authoritarianism. They see the rule over the many, by the few, governed by a magical belief in the nation state. They see this as an engineered reproduction of immaturity in a populace. The irony of the situation is that we have gotten to the point where there is an economy in a state where we do not have to dominate or exploit each other. We can divulge in power, where there is a society where we can open that systematic debate, where we could all be cared for, the wealth could be distributed. The desperation of the proletariat no longer exists, we can continue to invest in the practices of exploitation and intervention in order to drive the profit up. For Adorno and Horkheimer the only adherence to domination is that we have invested too much into the values of enlightenment thinking, enlightenment has never separated itself as this logic of domination and exploitation. Enlightenment reason is too folded into magic and myth. The irrational belief in the power of enlightenment, we believe that adorno and horkheimer can argue, that we have this sense of reason as a magical cure, and that we have a differentiation between magic and myth. THis idea that enlightenment has not freed itself from magic and myth, is that the idea of enlightenment itself. Enlightenment rationality is firmly steeped in magic and myth.
They are trying to hold both these truths at the same time, both ideas are working against their liberation at the same time. The solution to this is to look self critically on the reasons of rationality and that are valuable to us, and what is dangerous to us.
The book itself is dialectical, it sets up the claim about enlightenment rationality as a myth that supports its central thesis and explores it in a separate context. The concepts that we use when exercising its logic and reason are magical. Then there is a chapter on bourgeois individuality, ect.
Concluding chapter is antisemitism, anti jewish violence against jews, the limit of enlightenment ( over and above what we expected from enlightenment thinking ) antisemitism is exactly the type of domination and segregation that would come from the dialectic of enlightenment.
Horkeimer and Adorno asks how many weak individuals can still exist, the enlightenment is both a cure and a poison, it leads us only so far and then it starts to present itself as murky. From that perspective, the enlightened individual( who is also the bourgeois individual ) is use enlightenment rationality to dominate themselves and irrational tendencies. The logic of domination ties is back to myth and magic. Is already enlightened and magic.
There is the enlightenment myth that is entwined in myth, in the epic poem itself. We have various different myths in this poem, Homer compiled oral traditions into this poem. What each of these myths give us is attempts, using Odysseus's cunning nature to control nature. What is happening is that the chaos of these stories are being given order, because homer subjects them all to the dylteic dysamiter. What adorno and horkheimer are saying here is to give order to the story telling to produce a text, an image of precisely what is happening with enlightenment. Using the myths to conduct the manner of enlightenment.
