pt1 simmel, benjamin, adorno

q1 what is culture to simmel

• Culture is the objectification of life: subjective energies crystallize into forms (art, norms, fashion, social practices).

• These forms are socially shared, but originate in individual life.

• Culture is not reducible to objects; it is a process of mediation between individual and society.

q1 simmel culture exists between people?

• Society itself is not a thing but a network of interactions.

• Culture consists in the forms that stabilize interaction: patterns, expectations, symbols.

• Culture is what allows individuals to experience themselves as part of a social whole without losing individuality entirely.

q1 simmel how culture functions

• Culture functions by structuring interaction while still allowing differentiation.

• It provides shared meaning but does not eliminate individuality.

q1 simmel examples of interaction

• Sociology of the Meal:
  Culture organizes biological necessity into a social ritual.

• Adornment:
  Adornment is a cultural form that expresses a deep tension between being-for-oneself and being-for-others.

  • One adorns oneself to express individuality

  • But only through social recognition

q1 simmel do we need culture?

• For Simmel, culture is indispensable.

• Without culture:

  • No stable interaction

  • No recognition

  • No individuation within society

• Even attempts to escape culture (e.g. radical individuality) rely on cultural forms to be intelligible.

q1 simmel problem of culture

• Culture necessarily externalizes individuality.

• Cultural forms:

  • Become autonomous

  • Begin to dominate subjective life

• This is the tragedy of culture:

  • Forms meant to express life come to constrain it.

q1 simmel culture problem example

Adornment shows this vividly:

• Adornment heightens individuality

• But only by submitting it to impersonal, social form

• Individuality becomes legible only by being stylized

Culture both enables individuality and flattens it.

q1 benjamin what is culture

• Culture is the historically produced way a society preserves, transmits, and experiences meaning — and it is never neutral.

• Cultural artifacts are inseparable from:

  • Technology

  • Power

  • Historical memory

q1 benjamin culture’s dark side

• Culture is never innocent.

• Every cultural document is also a document of barbarism.

• Culture preserves domination by aestheticizing the past.

q1 benjamin how culture functions

• Culture organizes how the past appears to us.

• Historicism treats culture as:

  • Continuous

  • Progressive

  • Neutral

q1 benjamin photography is important because

• It shatters aura

• It reveals forgotten faces, marginal lives, unconscious gestures

• Culture becomes a site where history flashes up

q1 benjamin do we need culture?

• Benjamin does not think we can do without culture.

• But we must redeem culture from its ideological use.

• Culture should:

  • Interrupt complacency

  • Awaken historical consciousness

  • Refuse narratives of progress

q1 benjamin probs w culture

• Culture easily becomes:

  • Monumental

  • Reverential

  • Complicit with domination

• The danger is not culture itself, but how it is narrated and received.

q1 adorno what is culture

• Culture under late capitalism becomes administered.

• It is integrated into systems of:

  • Production

  • Opinion

  • Social control

Culture is no longer autonomous; it is functional.

q1 adorno culture’s functionalism

• In Opinion, Delusion, Society:

  • Culture trains people to mistake opinion for truth

  • Subjectivity becomes hardened, defensive, narcissistic

• Culture no longer cultivates judgment — it reproduces conformity.

q1 adorno problems with culture

• Culture’s only remaining promise lies in critical negativity.

• Thinking itself becomes a cultural act of resistance.

• Refusing easy answers is not resignation — it is fidelity to truth.

q2 simmel what is history

• For Simmel, history is not simply a record of past events.

• Something counts as historical only insofar as it is understood.

• History is therefore not identical with the past.

An event does not become historical merely because it happened, but because it is situated within an interpretive framework.

q2 simmel what is time

• Time is not an objective container in which events are placed.

• Time becomes meaningful only through relations between contents.

• Temporal location is relational, not absolute.

From The Problem of Historical Time:

• You cannot assign historical meaning by simply saying when something occurred.

• A date alone is insufficient for historical understanding.

q2 simmel historical time is constructed not given

• An event is historical when:

  • It is placed in relation to other events

  • It forms part of a coherent interpretive complex

• History is therefore atemporal in principle:

  • Understanding is not bound to a specific moment

  • We can grasp a historical structure independently of its empirical time location

q2 simmel historical documents

• Documents (texts, images, artifacts) are not self-interpreting.

• They become historical only when:

  • Integrated into a broader interpretive structure

  • Related to other phenomena

• Without interpretation, documents remain mere remnants, not history.

q2 simmel critique of historicism

• Historicism assumes:

  • History is a continuous sequence of facts

  • Meaning is produced by temporal placement alone

• Simmel rejects this:

  • Continuity is imposed by interpretation

  • Chronology ≠ understanding

q2 benjamin what is history

• Benjamin rejects history as:

  • Linear

  • Progressive

  • Continuous

• History is not a story of advancement but a field of struggle.

From the Theses on the Philosophy of History:

• History is written by the victors.

• Cultural artifacts preserve domination by presenting the past as resolved.

q2 benjamin what is time

Benjamin distinguishes:

• Homogeneous, empty time → the time of progress narratives

• Jetztzeit (now-time) → moments where past and present collide

• politically structured

q2 benjamin historical time

• Historical time is non-continuous.

• Meaning emerges in moments of rupture, not smooth succession.

• The past becomes legible only when it flashes up in the present.

This is crucial:

• The past is not fixed

• It can be reactivated, redeemed, or lost depending on the present moment

q2 benjamin historical documents

• Documents are not neutral evidence.

• Every document of culture is also a document of barbarism.

• Images, texts, photographs:

  • Contain suppressed histories

  • Reveal what official narratives conceal

From Little History of Photography:

• Photography captures:

  • Unintended details

  • Forgotten faces

  • Marginal lives

• These details disrupt dominant historical narratives.

q2 benjamin critique of historicism

• Historicism:

  • Treats the past as closed

  • Narrates history as inevitable progress

• Benjamin’s objection:

  • This neutralizes suffering

  • It reconciles us to domination

q2 adorno what is history

• History is not a meaningful totality.

• There is no rational narrative that redeems what has happened.

• History is marked by:

  • Domination

  • Regression

  • Repetition of catastrophe

Adorno rejects any philosophy of history that claims necessity or progress.

q2 adorno what is time

• Time under modern society is administered.

• It is standardized, instrumentalized, and emptied of qualitative meaning.

• Temporal experience is shaped by:

  • Capitalism

  • Routine

  • Mass culture

q2 adorno what is historical time

• Historical time is non-identical:

  • Past suffering cannot be integrated into a coherent story

  • Attempts to do so falsify it

• History does not culminate in reconciliation.

This is why Adorno resists:

• Closure

• Synthesis

• Redemptive narratives

q2 adorno historical documents

• Documents and cultural products:

  • Often conceal domination

  • Normalize injustice

• “Opinion” culture presents history as settled and obvious.

From Opinion, Delusion, Society:

• Society internalizes false historical narratives

• Individuals accept the present as natural and inevitable

q2 adorno critique of historicism

• Historicism falsely:

  • Justifies the present as the outcome of necessity

  • Rationalizes domination

• To say “that’s just how history unfolded” is already ideological.

q2 adorno WHY critique matters?

From Why Still Philosophy? and Resignation:

• Philosophy must:

  • Refuse reconciliation

  • Keep faith with the suffering of the past

• Thought is historical precisely because it resists closure.

q3 simmel individuality thru social forms

• For Simmel, the individual and society are not opposites.

• Society is nothing over and above interactions between individuals.

• The individual is always already social, but not dissolved into society.

q3 simmel society

• Society arises through:

  • Reciprocal interaction

  • Mutual orientation of individuals toward one another

q3 simmel society and social forms

• Individuals participate in society through social forms:

  • Roles

  • Norms

  • Practices

  • Styles of interaction

These forms:

• Structure interaction

• But do not fully determine individuality

q3 simmel individuality and culture

• Culture mediates between:

  • Subjective life (inner experience, vitality)

  • Objective forms (institutions, norms, cultural products)

• Individuality develops through engagement with cultural forms.

q3 simmel tragedy of culture

• As objective culture expands, individuals struggle to appropriate it.

This produces the tragedy of culture:

• Culture enables individuality

• Culture overwhelms individuality

q3 simmel individuality as differentiation + adornment

• Modern individuality is not isolation, but difference.

• Individuals assert themselves by:

  • Stylization

  • Distinction

  • Selective participation in social life

From Adornment:

• Adornment expresses individuality

• But only by appealing to social recognition

• The individual becomes visible by submitting to form

q3 simmel freedom and constraint

• Social forms constrain individuals

• But without them, individuality would be:

  • Inarticulate

  • Unrecognizable

• Freedom exists within form, not outside it.

q3 adorno the damaged individual

• Adorno is far more pessimistic than Simmel.

• In late capitalism, society:

  • Penetrates deeply into subjectivity

  • Shapes individuals from the inside

q3 adorno individual and society + delusion

• Society presents itself as:

  • Natural

  • Inevitable

  • Rational

• Individuals internalize social norms as their own thoughts.

From Opinion, Delusion, Society:

• “Opinion” gives the illusion of individuality

• But opinions are socially standardized

• Subjectivity becomes rigid, defensive, conformist

q3 adorno pseudo-individuality

• Culture encourages individuals to feel unique

• While offering only:

  • Pre-structured choices

  • Standardized forms of self-expression

This is pseudo-individualization:

• Difference without autonomy

• Choice without freedom

q3 adorno psychology and domination

From Freudian Theory and the Pattern of Fascist Propaganda:

• Individuals are shaped psychologically to:

  • Desire authority

  • Submit to domination

  • Identify with power

• Society exploits:

  • Narcissism

  • Fear

  • Resentment

q3 adorno is individuality still possible?

• Adorno does not claim individuality is dead.

• But it is:

  • Damaged

  • Fragile

  • Non-identical with social roles

q3 adorno true individuality lies in

• Critical thought

• Refusal to conform

• Resistance to false reconciliation

Thinking becomes an ethical act.

q3 adorno culture and individuality

• Culture no longer cultivates individuals

• It integrates them

• The individual survives only as negativity:

  • Saying no

  • Not fitting

  • Not being fully absorbed