Horkheimer And Adorno

14 Pages 3395 Words

Horkheimer and Adorno’s text , The Dialectic of enlightenment, is book of fragments, essays and asides and was assembled in unusual circumstances, allegedly following a conversation between Adorno and Horkheimer in their kitchen in New York. The main theme of the text is 'the self destruction of the Enlightenment', and the threat to social freedom that this entails.
The first section of the book concentrates on two theses: myth is already Enlightenment; and Enlightenment reverts to mythology'. Another essay in this book is the one on the 'culture industry', and it is viewd by many as the most important article in this text. The final section of the text examines anti-Semitism as an example of how civilization can revert to barbarism. Adorno and Horkheimer want to suggest that irrational outbursts like this are inherent in the dominant form of rationality itself.
In Dialectic of Enlightenment, the task Horkheimer and Adorno set themselves was nothing less than to discover why mankind, instead of entering into a truly human condition, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism. In the Dialectic, the history of domination is traced back to the ‘turning points’ of Western civilization. Horkheimer and Adorno were concerned to show how the rational domination of nature comes increasingly to win the day, in spite of all deviations and resistance, and integrate all human characteristics.

The Authors of the Dialectic present a critical rather than constructive view of history. They do not recommend particular practices as correct and beneficial. Their work is motivated by an awareness of the ever present threat of domination and their philosophy of history attempts to break the grip of all closed systems of thought. It is conceived as a contribution to the undermining of all benefits that claim completeness.

The Dialectic can be read at two different levels. At one level the notion of enlightenment is traced from Kant’s discussio...