History of Ideas Midterm

Idealism - Hegel

The rational is real, the real is rational; unites subject vs. object, consciousness vs. material world

Materialism - Marx

dialectic operated within the real, material economic world instead of abstract realm of thought; historical events as evidence

dialectic

method by which world slowly reaches self-actualization, opposition drives history

dialectical process - marx

Thesis: economic state, capitalism; Antithesis: the proletariat; Synthesis: proletariat forms new society (communism)

Sublation - Aufhebung

contradiction is canceled, true parts are kept, and it is elevated to higher conceptual unity/synthesis

teleological theory

explaining things by their final outcome, dialectics

economic base

Substructure: production forces (tools, tech, materials, labor) and relations (social/economic between division of owners/workers, workers/parts)

ideological superstructure

ideas, morals, cultural production

Marx understanding of history

economic base and ideological superstructure

commodity

object produced to be exchanged rather than direct, personal use

Communism

From each according to his capacity to each according to his need; no class, no antagonism

capital

accumulated goods in relation to production of other goods

Capitalism

means of production, pervasive use of money as means of exchange, bourgeoisie owns means of production, fetishization of commodities

value

socially necessary labor time to produce commodity

surplus value

paying labor less than commodity is priced

use value

value derived from physical properties inseparable from commodity

exchange value

wage-labor associated with production; total abstraction from use value, independent of physical properties and use

commodity fetishization

commodities fetishized for act of consumption, creation of desires, seen as objects outside of us/labor

Psychoanalysis

theory of the unconscious, analyzes workings of unconscious mind to explain conscious mind; eccentric theory, off from center (consciousness)

unconscious

looks at painful/problematic thoughts (repressed)

id

completely unconscious, primitive, instinctual component of personality; present at birth, sexual instinct

ego

conscious mind, agent of repression

oedipus complex

explains difference between childhood and adult psychoanalysis; complex causes repression of sexual thoughts until puberty

Dreams

through analysis: dream = fulfilment of wish

dreamwork

processes in which dreams are formed; latent becoming manifest, thoughts within the dream

latent content

relevant content understood through analysis (hidden meaning)

manifest content

dream itself as retained in memory, what it appears as

condensation

compression of images/ideas into one thing, common elements revealed through analysis

displacement

reassociation of ideas/elements in dream; obfuscates dream meaning, latent/manifest indistinguishable

pictorial form

thoughts represented in symbols/images/poetic speech

pictorial arrangement

reproducing logical relations by approximating time/space; reverse order: resolution —> conflict; spatial proximity = intimate connection

motive

repression, unconscious wants to say things conscious mind won’t let out

censorship

consciousness guard is weak during sleep but not completely gone, unconsciousness disguises thoughts with weird dream language

distortion

ego modifies/disguises unconscious wishes, compromise between unconscious/conscious

overdetermining

giving lots of examples in dream to drive home idea

function of dream

guardian of sleep (alarm clock within dream); repressed wish is fulfilled, making sleep possible

critical theory

analysis of society and the individual, theory always critical

critical realism - Lucaks

judges realism on ability to reveal and show human character; good literature should reveal the socio-political forces (capitalist contradictions) shaping human life

culture of decay

stage in cultural history where art/literature/philosophy stop reflecting objective social reality and instead retreat into extreme subjectivism and irrationality; ideological defense mechanism for bourgeoisie

bourgeois defense mechanism, culture

cannot justify contradictions/exploitation, cultural production turns to nihilism and irrationalism (world makes no sense); Lucaks contrasted decay with critical realism, which retained rational, historical framework necessary for human liberation

Estrangement - Brecht (playwright)

theatrical technique that stops audience from emotionally identifying with characters so they can think critically about social and political realities; makes familiar look strange

combatting alienation - Lucaks

worker can compensate for alienation by thinking abstractly about production process; wants proletariat protagonist in media to inspire people to see new social structures

reification

act of taking something abstract/idea and making it a concrete/physical thing; logic of commodities prevail and logic between people becomes that between things

state of totality

Lucaks: method of dialectical thought where social/economic/historical system is understood as interconnected whole rather than collection of separate, fixed parts

concrete - pre-capitalist life

social/economic/political relations experienced directly as human-to-human

abstract - capitalist life

proletariat only touches part of whole in assembly line, must use abstraction to understand whole; proletariat understands the world and only ones capable of changing it

Division of labor - lucaks

“the division of labor within society brings into contact independent commodity-producers who acknowledge no other authority other than that of competition”

mass ornament - kracauer

geometric mass forms and patterns; myth cult wrapped in abstraction to appear like reasoning but is just illusion

Tiller Girls

“indissoluble girl clusters,” synchronized movements formed geometric patterns; Kracauer argued mechanical precision mirrored repetitive logic of industrial assembly lines

masses - vs people

masses lose individuality, culture, and history; true reasoning designed for humans instead of forcing them into system

History - Kracauer

Process, battle between reason and nature; must demythologize nature to achieve reasoning/truth (dialectical view)

Reason

Progressive, history must rescue reason from capitalism (appears like rational machine but cannot allow justice)

Nature

Regressive, blind necessity and lack of freedom

Myth

cultural expression of being dominated by nature

demythologizing

process of stripping away the unthinking, automatic power of nature; process happens through mass ornament, not around it

demystifying

works to dissolve apparent naturalness of capitalist world by exposing how mass culture works like a “distraction factory”

Frankfurt School

reexamined Marxism and extended it to social realm, studied structure/development of authority and emergence/proliferation of mass culture

Theory of production - technological optimism

technological innovation changed art by destroying art and shifting focus from ritual/cult to politics; Benjamin is optimistic and thinks reproducibility allows art to reach working classes

Aura

original object is unique and exists in space and time, since of originality, halo of distance gives it authority

mechanically reproducible art

film and photography, aura is destroyed when art can be multiplied

outmoded concepts — bourgeois-eternal value, mystery, creativity, genius

reproducibility forces us to abandon artistic traditions (creativity and genius, Vasari), good thing bc fascism used genius and mystery to mystify art and create cult hierarchy

Benjamin structure

Economic base (substructure that drives cultural and political superstructure), Superstructure (cultural production)

Authenticity

unique presence, authority, and physical-historical testimony of original artwork

withering of aura

art loses magical/mystical because everyone has access to it

human sense perception

Not fixed or purely biological, how we experience the world based on history, technology, social conditions; changes in perception are signs of social transformation

socially dependent vs. autonomous art (benjamin)

art made to be seen (mass distribution, exhibition value); art that is independent from dominant social order allowing it to resist society rather than reproduce it

cult value — ritual

art meant to be hidden; originally made for rituals and instrument of magic

Magician (Benjamin)

magician = painter, distanced from work and their work from reality, results in contemplation and preserves aura

Surgeon (Benjamin)

cameraman, decreases distance by penetrating body, does not face patient “man-to-man,” fragmented and analytical

Eugene Atget, John Heartfield, Hannah Hock

Collage artists, spread antifascist messages, BEnjamin’s optimistic view on new art

Communism — politicization of aesthetics

art should recognize role in society/politics, transparent message, using art to raise consciousness

distraction vs. contemplation

distraction: passive, experiencing architecture through habitual use and film through montage and shock; contemplation: relies on aura, demands distance, cult value, and focus

Post-humanism – Althusser-anti-humanism

Approach that challenges the assumption that humans are autonomous, exceptional, or the center of thought

Hannes Meyer

1st director of Bauhaus, logic of functionalism and focus on mass production, avante garde

functionalism and mass production (hayes)

origin and content of form, legible architecture can see origin/form/function

Constructivist aesthetic — high art/avant garde (hayes)

construction legible through visual tropes (visible trusses and exposed concrete), strips away decorative mask and shatter capitalist myth

Co-op vitrine

resembles city and assembly line, indexing of the system pointing to what produced it

League of nations competition project

cell logic, not unique, could be anywhere

Negative Dialectics

Adorno, exposes gap between reality and ideal by looking at what isn’t there, feel absence instead of creating utopia

Autonomy vs collapse of art into life

Disagrees with benjamin and says his way can be used for capitalist/fascist propoganda, argues for autonomous art under technical laws

Autonomous art vs. dependent art

Autonomous: follows own internal laws/logic, dependent: fits preexisting ideologies and used as means to an end

Art’s emancipatory potential (genuine high art)

autonomy can only exist in realm of high art, potential lies in autonomy and negativity by refusing to serve political demands by state or market

Max Horkheimer

introduces psychoanalysis to Frankfurt School; dialectical enlightenment: challenges enlightenment period bc science used for mass destruction WWII

Dialectical construction of the relationship between myth and history (adorno)

argues distinction between 2, not simple chronological succession where enlightened history leaves myth behind (Benjamin), two are immanent dialectic where myth and enlightenment constantly reverse into one another

regression - mystification - auratic art

regression due to culture industry strips away aura, mystification as a result; high autonomous art resists societal norms and thereby illusion, whereas culture industry art is distraction

autonomous art - technical laws

autonomous high art based off own internal logic, schoenberg twelve-tone symphony

reconciliation of the masses to the status quo

When the masses are constantly taking in illusory art/distraction, they are illusioned to accept the status quo

leisure (adorno)

Leisure is twice reified: first sold to laborer then used to give semblance of reconstituted self lost in alienation in labor

Adorno vs. Benjamin, how is art efficacious

Adorno argues for autonomy to keep art from being coopted, only happens in realm of high art; Benjamin argues art effective through collapse into society, distributed and makes statement, bourgeois art is not engaging and all high art supports dominant order; both see capitalist/fascist cooption as problematic

Autonomy (Aureli)

Aureli redefines, away from autonomy from capitalist system to autonomy for the worker within the system, acknowledge culture to structure an alternative

operaism

1960s worker movement, Aureli connects to architectural history, architecture can use form to confront/resist forces of capitalism

autonomia

expanded from operaism, autonomy outside of factory to include broader social groups (multitude)

Tronti

promary operismo philosopher, aureli uses his political concepts to analyze how architects of that era attempted designs to resist capitalism

multitude

Emergence of democracy through populous

Phenomenology

Method/study of essence/meanings

Husserl - transcendental phenomenology - method of reduction

studies human experience as it appears in pure consciousness, free from every day assumptions and biases, examines data (when see chair what chair and what me sight)

Hermaneutic phenomenology

interpreting texts seen as removed from you (the Bible), needs explanation

Being - Dasein

Heidegger rejects descartes, humans fundamentally embedded into physical and social world, conscious of own existence and death

Frankfurt critique of heidegger

Say his search for universal essence is delusional, calls individual thought universal truth

Gestell

enframing, total control, everything has place in world, nature is standing reserves and humans are labor/resources