 Dialectic
of Enlightenment by
Max Horkheimer,
Adorno
This celebrated work is the keystone of the
thought of the Frankfurt School. It is a wide-ranging
philosophical and psychological critique of the Western
categories of reason and nature, from Homer to Nietzsche.
"A classic of twentieth-century thought". -- Times
Literary Supplement
Beyond one's imagination, the consequences of
enlightenment and modernity were visualized by Adorno and
Horkheimer in a brilliant piece named "Dialectic of
enlightenment". It is a handy volume , rich in content and
weaved with lengthy sentences. It was an outcome of shock given
by the Nazi forces. Nevertheless a thought about direct results
of extreme reasoning, radical socialization and discovery of
motives behind humanity's retrogression instead of progressive
civilization.
The urge to reach the technological zenith
started in that crucial period. Demonstration of destruction of
masses with atom bomb was yet to kick off. But the terror
started shaking the two intellectuals. Again and again they
questioned themselves. Conclusion was insight - social freedom
is inseparable from the enlightened thought.
The need for enlightenment was to create a
civil society with rationalized idea grows in individuals and
institutions. Not just the rational consciousness. What was
needed that time is to desperate fear from fate. But with modern
science , commerce and politics, it end in a fear of social
deviation.
Enlightenment is as equally destructive as
that of romanticism. The self of enlightened being itself comes
in to life only when it surrender to its enemy. It refuses to
transcend the false absolute in reality. The book is clearly
classified in to five simple segmental chapters which deal with
the metamorphosis of modernity. It is a critical study with myth
is already an enlightenment and enlightenment reverts to
mythology as the basic premises. For the authors, Homerian
odyssey is the main target to show the dialectic of myth and
enlightenment. Odyssey was accused as the earliest
representative testimonies of western bourgeois civilization.
Kant, Sade and Nietzsche were not spared. Adorno and Horkheimer
show how the submission of everything natural to the autocratic
subject finally culminates in the mastery of the blindly
objective and natural. Kant and Sade's idea were branded
'bourgeois thought' and accused of morality mixed with
amorality.
First chapter deals with how myth is already
an enlightenment. Second one shows the reverse of enlightenment
to mythology. Third, projects the submission of subject which
makes the object a master. Fourth, "culture industry"
brings out the process where enlightenment is ideaogized. Fifth
chapter traces the movement of humanity to barbarism.
It is a thorough trashing of enlightenment.
They understand that extreme enlightened self is as dangerous as
that of fully radiant earth which radiates disaster triumphant.
One has to undergo an intellectual torture to
read this book. But it is a must for any mind which have urge to
know the other side of modernity. -- by A. Prabaharan, Center
for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi, India
 Click
here to learn more about this book
Click
here for more books by and about Horkheimer
Click
here for Books about the Frankfurt School
Click
here for 20th Century Philosophy Books
|
