Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #98352 in Books
• Published on: 1997-11-27
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 284 pages

Synopsis
Dialectic of Enlightenment is, quite justifiably, one of the most celebrated and often cited works of modern social philosophy. It has been identified as the keystone of the 'Frankfurt School', of which Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer were the leading members, and does not cease to impress in its wide-ranging ambition and panache. Adorno and Horkheimer addressees themselves to a question which went to the very heart of the modern age, namely 'why mankind, instead of entering into a truly human condition, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism'. Modernity, far from redeeming the promises and hopes of the Enlightenment, had resulted in a stultification of mankind and an administered society, characterised by simulation and candy-floss entertainment. To seek an answer to the question of how such a condition could arise, Adorno and Horkheier subjected the whole history of Western catagories of reason and nature, from Homer to Nietzsche, to a searching philosophical and psychological critique.

Drawing on psychoanalytical insights, their own work on the 'culture industry', deep knowledge of the key Enlightenment and anti-Enlightenment thinkers, as well as fascinating considerations on the relationship between reason and myth - the rational and the irrational - the authors exposed the domination and violence towards both nature and humanity that underpin the Enlightenment project.

Customer Reviews

Challenging and enlightening, if difficult at first.
Horkheimer and Adorno's post-war exposition of the dark underbelly of modernity retains a fantastic relevance to this day. While the enlightenment project has suffered a recent battering it is still the fundamental determinate of Western post-industrial society. Reason, rationality, the rule of science over nature are still conceptual benchmarks for our modalities of thought. The dialectic of enlightenment serves as a constant reminder of the potential that we all have to give in to nature, to our passions and our senses. Lurking beneath the veneer of 'civilisation' and 'progress' lie more sinister corrolaries which act in dialectical congruence thereby perpetuating the risk of eventualities such as the holocaust. The book does require a patient reading, but if you give the idiosyncratic style a little time it shouldn't prove too impervious.

James Bell