More Foucault on Mimesis

Foucault cites a concrete example by Crollius:

The stars are the matrix of all the plants and every star is only the spiritual prefiguration of a plant, such that it represents that plant, and just as each herb or plant is a terrestrial star looking up at the sky, so also each star is a celestial plant in spiritual form, which differs from the terrestrial plants in matter alone..., the celestial plants and herbs are turned toward the earth and look directly down upon the plants they have procreated, imbuing them with some virtue.

--Foucault, p. 20.

Michel Foucault on Mimesis

Here is how French philosopher Michel Foucault describes what the Horkheimer/Adorno see as a pre-modern age of mimesis (which Foucault calls resemblance):

Up to the end of the sixteenth century, resemblance played a constructive role in the knowledge of Western culture. It was resemblance that largely guided exegesis and the interpretation of texts; it was resemblance that organized the play of symbols, made possible knowledge of things visible and invisible, and controlled the art of representing them. The universe was folded in upon itself: the earth echoing the sky, faces seeing themselves reflected in the stars, and plants holding within their stems the secrets that were of use to man. Painting imitated space. And representation--whether in the service of pleasure or knowledge--was posited as a form of repetition: the theatre of life or the mirror of nature, that was the claim made by all language, its manner of declaring its existence and of formulating it right of speech.

--Michel Foucault, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences (NY: Vintage, 1970), p. 17

Horkheimer in America

Intellectual historian James Schmidt (Boston University) provides background on the material difficulties that attended the publication of The Eclipse of Reason:


"The Eclipse of Reason and the End of the Frankfurt School in America"

Blog works.

Pythagorean Theory

I haven't posted anything yet so I'll start with a question from chapter 1 I just rediscovered.

On page 5 in Chapter 1, Horkheimer references Platonism's integration of the Pythagorean theory of numbers into a method of objective reasoning. My question is when and how did mathematics transition from a instrument of objective reasoning to subjective reasoning?

Or is the history of the Pythagorean theory as it relates to Philosophy different from how we learn about it in Geometry?

--Annie

Zizek

If you're interested in the question of tolerance, an interesting recent treatment of it can be found in Slovenian thinker Slavoj Zizek's Violence (Amazon). In many respects, Zizek can be considered a contemporary heir of Critical Theory. He combines reflections on pop culture (esp. film), Hegel, and psychoanalysis (particularly Lacan) in an entertaining and readable way. This book especially is meant for a more general audience than some of his other work. Ch. 4 is entitled "Antinomies of Tolerant Reason" and Ch. 5 "Tolerance as an Ideological Category." Let me know if you want to take a look at the book.

The more these artificial renaissances strive to keep intact the letter of the original doctrines, the more they distort the original meaning, for truth is forged in an evolution of changing and conflicting ideas.
- Hork 42

I found this an interesting line. Comments? Explanations?

A German term in a Horkheimer book? No way

Reading through the first chapter in Eclipse of Reason, on page 14, I came across the word: Volksgemeinschaft. When Horkheimer was explaining how liberalism can lead to terror and facisim (such as the post WWI German republic government, which lead the way to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party) this term arose. From my basic knowledge of the German language, and our class discussion of the term in class, the term basically means "an idea of national community"

Looking up the word, the broad definition is pretty much the same as it was discussed in class. Volksgemeinschaft means a peoples community, a term which was widely used by Hitler defining his Utopian Germany as such by racial means, with divisions of racial harmony and divisions of class parties. Hitler wanted to establish a national community within Germany, based on pseudo-scientific racial terms. It was generally used as a term by the National Socialist party during the 20th century Nazi reign in Germany (Britannica Encylcopedia Online. http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/632308/Volksgemeinschaft).

Why Can't They Just Speak English?

Why Can't They Just Speak English?!
On page 241 of Horkheimer's Traditional and Critical Theory, he writes:"...The circle of transmitters of this tradition is neither limited nor renewed by organic or sociological laws. It is constituted and maintained not by biological or testamentary inheritance, but by a knowledge which brings its own obligations with it"It could be because I'm not the best at reading comprehension, but this confuses me entirely. First off, what "tradition" is Horkheimer talking about? That will help me understand the rest of the quote, but I'm still confused as to what he means by organic laws and by the phrase "a knowledge which brings its own obligations with it."I'll find out for Monday, but for now, I'll just remain baffled.

Dialectic Defined

From the Meriam Webster Dictionary:
Dialectic -
"a : the Hegelian process of change in which a concept or its realization passes over into and is preserved and fulfilled by its opposite; also : the critical investigation of this process b (1) usually plural but singular or plural in construction : development through the stages of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis in accordance with the laws of dialectical materialism (2) : the investigation of this process (3) : the theoretical application of this process especially in the social sciences"

This is what Marx says:
"My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite. To Hegel, the life-process of the human brain, i.e. the process of thinking, which, under the name of 'the Idea,' he even transforms into an independent subject, is the demiurgos of the real world, and the real world is only the external, phenomenal form of 'the Idea.' With me, on the contrary, the ideal is nothing else than the material world reflected by the human mind, and translated into forms of thought." (Capital, Volume 1, Moscow, 1970, p. 29).

Definition (Personal Attempt): Dialectic

This word is found in the footnote on page 206: "It points to an essential aspect of the dialectical theory of society."

Horkheimer is using the term to explain his idea of "critical" activity, and therefore describes the latter part of the essay about critical theory - Marx's ideas. From the word itself, "di," I would assume, means two. So the word in some sense indicates a two sided theory, one with or about an internal argument or conflict. Perhaps it is refering to the seperation between the indiviual and society? Between the good of the individual and the good of the whole?

The Frankfurt School in Exile

Recent review from The New Republic provides decent background on the Frankfurt School in NYC.

The book under review looks interesting as well: The Frankfurt School in Exile (Amazon) by Thomas Wheatland (Minnesota, 2009). Both the review and the book look worthwhile.

Attempted Definition

As I was reading Horkheimer's "Traditional and Critical Theory", and being fairly new to this whole concept of philosophy, I came across a term that I've never heard before. Here it is: Phenonmenologically. Since this word has "logic" in it, I'm assuming it has something to do with a method of philosophy and logic concerning a phenomenon? I don't know. I'll find out what this term means on Friday.

Definition: Reification

Okay, so I'll start with our attempted definitions.

Reification is a term that doesn't figure prominently in this piece, but it will become more important as we go along. Lukacs devotes an essay to the concept in History and Class Consciousness entitled "Reification and the Consciousness of the Poletariat." He ties it back to Marx's theory of commodity fetishism, but the idea echoes the Kantian notion of heteronomy as well. Basically, reification occurs when we relate to others in the same way that we relate to things. Kant says that this happens when we treat others as means rather than as ends, and Marx extends this idea to the conditions of relations between people under capitalism. Labor has a fixed value, and it is this value that comes to define the human being, and nothing besides. Here is Lukacs quoting Marx: "A commodity is therefore a mysterious thing, simply because in it the social character of men's labor appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labor; because the relation of the producers to the sum total of their own labor is presented to them as a social relation, existing not between them but between the products of their labor. This is the reason why the products of labor become commodities, social things whose qualities are at the same time perceptible and imperceptible by the senses...It is only a definite social relation between men that assumes in their eyes, the fantastic form of a relation between things" (Lukacs, p. 86).

Welcome

Welcome to the course blog for PHR 3010: Contemporary Philosophy at Elmira College. We'll be posting questions and responses to our readings and discussions of the Frankfurt School here throughout the term.

For your first posts, please carefully read through Max Horkheimer's 1937 essay "Traditional and Critical Theory." Find one key term in the text and attempt a definition for it. First attempt to define it in your own words and then link or cut and paste definitions that you deem relevant.