Justin Andrew Hill

I explore critique through art, a meaningful problem as art is pervasive and ideology plays a role in social progress. I also consider the debate between Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, a question of passive absorption versus active contemplation. I argue Baruch Spinoza’s psychology of affects presents a critique of Adorno, allows a defense of Benjamin, and provides a thicker understanding of both thinkers. I criticize Adorno for implying that rationality is immediately possible and argue social progress must be historical and procedural; rationality cannot be a means to this progress. Affects are the proper means for this historical moment. Passive absorption of art, particularly through film, is more effective than active contemplation due to the causal function of affect.