After reading the text and attending the lecture I did some research about the authors, because I figured out that it helps a lot when you know about the current situation and their history to understand their texts. During the lecture I realized how important it is to be aware of all the factors, that influenced the author at that time. The different situations Benjamin and Adorno & Horkheimer had when writing their text clearly showed how much you can read between the lines just because of knowing about their situation.
At the seminar I really liked the example of Plato's allegory of the cave to clarify how Plato said that the concepts are real and not the perception of it. With the use of his example the real world is behind the brick wall where the fire is and not where the shadows are visible. The seminar helped me understanding the difference between Realism and Nominalism a lot. Nominalism says that concepts are only names and there is no such thing as a universal concept. The example given in the seminar was that just because somebody is a woman does not mean that she has long hair shows how Nominalism does not approve of universal concepts. The problem of Nominalism is that if you only register what is you cannot get any revolutionary potential. Adorno & Horkheimer say that Nominalism tends to repeat the structure we already know and does not have visions for the future. Therefore it cannot have revolutionary potential, because you need to think about the future to start a revolution. I did not really get the difference between Realism and Nominalism in the first place and I think that I got the meaning of them a little bit wrong, but after the seminar I really feel confident about it. I really liked the explanations of Henrik Åhman. I thought that I got the examples mentioned in the text right, but I needed the seminar to actually understand the difference between a painting and a picture of the painting.
The most important thing I learned during theme 2 is to not only read the texts but also spend some time on finding out who the authors are and in what historical context they wrote their texts. By having their history in mind it is so much easier to get what they want to tell in their writings.
Hej,
AntwortenLöschenIt's great to see that you also felt that putting the texts into their historical context helped a lot with understanding them. It also seems like doing additional research about the authors and their specific surroundings helped you. I will definitely do it directly for the next topic!
Also the distinction between nominalism and realism was something that stuck with me during and after the seminar - interesting to see that it was the same for you! I feel that we learn a lot during this course, also by reading other's comment, like yours now! :-)
Reading you first blog post on this topic, I can see how much time you have put into these answers and you worked well with the texts! The lecture and seminar, though, seemed to have helped you - also me - to clear things up, for instance, on the term Nominalism; I found Plato's cave allegory also really helpful, nice to read about it again! I agree with you, the context the texts were written in is extremely interesting - I think by trying to understand their environment more, but being able just to imagine how they lived at that point in time, we uphold Benjamin’s point on perception being determined by nature and history.
AntwortenLöschenHi Hannah!
AntwortenLöschenI can really see that you put down time to read and understand the concepts of this theme. It seems like, from what I've read on the other blogs that i've been commenting on, that the majority of us were confused about nominalism and realism. I really like that you put nominalism in a perspective of gender. That made me think that, in a way, a nominalist may be looking at a person as a whole rather than judging a person based on their gender, since they see everyone as unique. But this might be a topic for a whole other course.. :) Keep up the good work!
I agree with the contexts of the authors being important. After realising the contexts, I was surprised that they weren't mentioned more clearly in the introduction to this theme. But on the other hand, I have now also realised what you mentioned, that researching the texts myself a bit before reading them helps a lot.
AntwortenLöschenI think you made a good summing up of why nominalism lacks revolutionary potentials. It reminds me of some current debates, where in the instance of for example feminism, the arguments often build on the ability to perceive systematic structures that in general lead to different forms of oppression. The existence of such structures are in debates sometimes rejected by what could probably be called nominalistic arguments, when people claim "not all men do X" or "some women also do Y", etc. From a nominalistic point of view, people are just people and they just individually are how they happen to be and there are no structures to be perceived and potentially fight against.
I agree with you that if you know the background of the authors it is easier to understand what they have written and why they perceive it that way. Since everyone are influenced by when and where have lived, their opinions cannot be independent of that. This holds true also for the authors. In my opinion, nominalism was the most difficult part of this theme, but after the lecture and the seminar the meaning cleared up. Plato’s cave allegory was really helpful and nice to read about it again. Your reflections complete mine. Thanks for sharing!
AntwortenLöschenHey!
AntwortenLöschenI find your conclusion for the necessity of researching the authors and the conditions they were writing their texts in very interesting and useful. I think for now that I am going to do that also and it will help me greatly in understanding the given topics.
All in all I agree with your post and your conclusions from theme 2.
It was a good idea that you read about the authors as you have also mentioned the historical context in which those texts were written could have significant influence on those writings. Once you know the context in the time of the writings you could discern what the authors intend to say mush easier. Putting the readings into a larger historical, situational perspectives helps you make more sense of the material at hand. You have quite concisely explained nominalism, realism and their differences. You text was coherent and you showed good understanding of the readings.
AntwortenLöschen