Dialectic of Enlightenment
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The Dialectic of Enlightenment is a seminal work by Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, key figures of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. Published in 1947, the book critiques the Enlightenment, arguing that the very reason and scientific progress championed by the Enlightenment paradoxically led to new forms of domination and irrationality.12
Adorno and Horkheimer contended that the Enlightenment's focus on instrumental reason—reason used to control nature and society—ultimately turned against humanity, leading to phenomena like fascism and totalitarianism. They believed that the rationalization of society, while advancing technology, suppressed individual freedom and critical thought, creating a culture of conformity and manipulation. The work explores how myth and reason are intertwined, with both serving to control and dominate.12
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- Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno
…book Dialektik der Aufklärung (1947; Dialectic of Enlightenment), Adorno and Horkheimer located this impulse in the concept of reason itself, which the Enlightenment and modern scientific thought had transformed into an irrational force that had come to dominate not only nature but humanity itself. The rationalization of human society had…
Read More…book Dialektik der Aufklärung (1947; Dialectic of Enlightenment), Adorno and Horkheimer located this impulse in the concept of reason itself, which the Enlightenment and modern scientific thought had transformed into an irrational force that had come to dominate not only nature but humanity itself. The rationalization of human society had…
Read More - Max Horkheimer
…Adorno on an influential study, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), which traced the rise of fascism and other forms of totalitarianism to the Enlightenment notion of “instrumental” reason. The work’s pessimism reflects the defeats that progressive European social movements had suffered since the early 1930s. A more accessible version of the…
Read More…Adorno on an influential study, Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), which traced the rise of fascism and other forms of totalitarianism to the Enlightenment notion of “instrumental” reason. The work’s pessimism reflects the defeats that progressive European social movements had suffered since the early 1930s. A more accessible version of the…
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