Essen, Universiẗat, Diss., 2002.

The Enlightenment was funded by a utopian hope that increased knowledge of nature as a mechanism could create the conditions for lasting peace and widespread happiness. The twentieth century, however, has been marked by catastrophes hitherto beyond imagination. This thesis examines two critiques of enlightenment that suggest this development is not accidental either to the concept of enlightenment or to the course it has taken in modern Western societies. The development in question follows from tendencies within enlightenment itself. I provide an exegetical account of Horkheimer and Adorno's analysis, in their collaborative work Dialectic of Enlightenment, of the regressive moment in enlightenment, which, for them, is owed to the entanglement of rationality and domination. Next, I examine Peter Sloterdijk's analysis, in Critique of Cynical Reason, of the ambivalent social reception of enlightenment that results in the phenomenon of modern cynicism, which must be contrasted with its ancient namesake that I render, following the translation of Sloterdijk, as "kynicism". In each of these works the way forward for enlightenment hinges upon cultivating a relationship between nature and the subject that is not based on dominating opposition: nature as a mechanism for human purposes or as the suppressed inner nature of the subject. Horkheimer and Adorno's solution is the recovery of reflection on nature within the subject. I show that this is insufficient to meet the challenges posed by modern cynicism that Sloterdijk reveals to be a late development of enlightenment. It is for this reason that Sloterdijk asks us to recall the legacy of Diogenes of Sinope. Sloterdijk finds in Diogenes a critical consciousness that resists the "melancholic stagnation" of cynical society and retains the utopian spirit of enlightenment.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-01T23:37:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_10025_EDUCAÇÃO, INDÚSTRIA CULTURAL E RESSENTIMENTO NO SERIADO TODO MUNDO ODEIA O CHRIS.pdf: 1641924 bytes, checksum: cda17d5f08d54ca10ba2a9aa92f6795e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-07-22 / Esta dissertação tece considerações sobre a ação dos meios de comunicação de massa no processo de formação das subjetividades de crianças e adolescentes. O objeto de estudo é o seriado Todo mundo odeia o Chris, programa de televisão com altos índices de Ibope na televisão brasileira, indicado por 24 dos 25 alunos de uma turma de Ensino Fundamental, no município de Vila Velha. O problema da pesquisa diz respeito à produção do ressentimento validado pelos media, no sentido de se perceber o que esse sentimento pode desencadear nas relações sociais. Parte-se das seguintes hipóteses: a) sentimentos de inferioridade podem ser produzidos e/ou agravados por meio da mediação da indústria cultural, que formata o sentido da vida pelos media e contribui para o processo sermiformativo (Halbildung), o que pode ser um dos principais motivadores da adaptação dos sujeitos; b) a falta de elaboração do passado, quer seja individual ou coletiva, pode ser um dos fatores que tendem a perpetuar as convicções dos sujeitos, principalmente no que se refere à formação das subjetividades. A partir de alguns diálogos, de personagens do seriado, propõe-se analisar o conceito de ressentimento, bem como suas possíveis consequências. De cunho teórico-analítico, a partir de uma abordagem qualitativa a pesquisa recorre à Teoria Crítica da Sociedade de Theodor Adorno, em diálogo com aspectos da filosofia de Nietzsche bem como com a tradição da teoria psicanalítica. A partir dos estudos de Adorno, foi possível verificar que a indústria cultural tem um papel decisivo na orquestração de gostos e desejos dos seres humanos, bem como promove a ideologia de que ser submisso é a única condição possível para uma determinada classe. No entanto, quando os sujeitos ressentidos não conseguem mais sublimar o ódio, esses se voltam contra alguém, e é devastador. Uma possível saída, de acordo com Adorno, é a realização de uma cristalina elaboração do passado, no sentido de elevar, ao nível da consciência, os restos abandonados nos escombros da história individual e coletiva , pôr-se em busca da origem subjetiva e objetiva que condiciona a existência das ações que significam o agora.

No description available.

Diss.--Fakultät der Sozialwissenschaften--Bochum--Ruhr Universität, 2001. / Bibliogr. p. 244-291.

Texte remanié de: Thesis--Universität Oldenburg, 1999. / Bibliogr. p. 283-301.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 312-319). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.A.)--Stony Brook University, 2008. / This official electronic copy is part of the DSpace Stony Brook theses & dissertations collection maintained by the University Libraries, Special Collections & University Archives on behalf of the Stony Brook Graduate School. It is stored in the SUNY Digital Institutional Repository and can be accessed through the website. Presented to the Stony Brook University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy; as recommended and accepted by the candidate's degree sponsor, the Dept. of Philosophy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-63).

Theodor Adorno’s theory of listener regression describes the process by which music industry forces transform listeners from independent social creatures into passive, compliant consumers of musical product. Listener regression is the basis of the broader theory of culture industry consumer regression which Adorno later developed, by which the culture industry creates and reinforces the passive compliance of consumers of all cultural products. By further extension, it is my theory that listener regression is the key to understanding how the phenomenon of culture industry dominance over its consumers applies to the whole range of non-cultural as well as cultural consumer products. In the second chapter of this paper I discuss how listeners of music industry output are made to regress: through the standardization of musical form, the repetition which flows from standardization and the attention to musical detail which has no formal function. I consider those childhood traits which constitute listener regression. Freud’s theory of regression is discussed and distinguished. It is important to filter out the negativity which infuses much of Adorno’s writing on listener regression. That negativity arises arguably either from Adorno’s own acute musical perception which exceeds the average listener’s or from the era of growing totalitarianism in which he formed his views. That negativity unnecessarily clouds the significance of the relationship between the music industry and average listeners, between the larger culture industry and its consumers, and between the exponentially larger consumer industry and all consumers generally. Country music as the epitome of the kind of “popular music” which Adorno argues results in the regression of its listeners is the topic of the third chapter. I conclude that country music does meet Adorno’s criteria for listener regressive music. I also conclude that within the confines Adorno finds so soul-depriving is amazingly creative music and musicality which responds to some of humankind’s most basic needs. In the last chapter, I discuss music as a fundamental component of human society which responds to some deep social need. By showing us how one segment of the consumer industry has turned that need to its commercial benefit, Adorno’s theory can help show parallels with those profit-motivated forces within other segments of our consumer society, for instance with the manipulation of the basic need for sustenance by the fast-food industry. The paper concludes with a number of observations about the manipulative nature of the powerful commercial pressure put on us as consumers, and offers a suggestion or two for dealing with that pressure.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, August 2008.