Post reflection of theme 2

The second theme was quiet good, but texts were not easy to understand as in first theme. Also these texts were connected with previous texts as the core concept was similar. I prepared for theme two by writing pre-reflection in my learning portfolio for which I have read two texts, ‘Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Technical Reproductivity" (1936)’ and ‘Adorno och Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944) (chapters "The Concept of Enlightenment" and "The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception")’. Then I answered some questions related to these texts. By answering the questions I understood the core concept of authors that how art and culture has revolutionary potentials and evolve in our society.

Johan did a good job in lecture as he explained these philosophies with the help of interesting examples. Also he discussed the historical background and personal life of authors that enabled me to think about their concepts in a different way. He discussed some new terms as well such as ‘Futurism’ and ‘Fascism’, then explained these terms in different cultures like Italian and German fascism. Another interesting question we discussed, ‘’What is the role of culture in society?’ As I understood, culture preserves knowledge and helps its transmission from generation to generation which is essential for physical and intellectual existence of human beings.

In seminar we discussed Benjamin’s and Adorno & Horkheimer’s philosophies further, we talked a lot about nominalism, and also nominalism vs realism. As we shape society based on the illogical things or historical culture (perception based on past knowledge and experiences) but if we investigate it further so we just stuck about these concepts. However, we grasp these concepts in depth. We also did an interesting activity during seminar, we divided in smaller groups of 4 members and answered some additional questions. In which we discussed the connection between enlightenment and culture industry and how culture deceive us, here we talked about American mass media (as Benjamin was American) which makes people passive and happy slaves, for example it gives the idea to people that ‘only way you can climb society is winning money and be settled.’ We also talked a lot about revolutionary potentials with the help of new technologies.

The seminar gave me more insight about the texts and clearer understanding about dialectic of enlightenment. As Johan described enlightenment in two ways: one way it gives more knowledge but the other way it removes old knowledge.