Lecture 7 - Critics of the Enlightenment Flashcards
Why is the Dialektik der Aufklärung by Horkheimer & Adorno often perceived as a difficult read? By whom was this style of writing inspired?
It does not consist of clear chapters, but of philosophical fragments and deliberations
Inspired by Wittgenstein
What is the Dialektik a critique of?
The notion of rationality in modern Western culture
Why do Horkheimer & Adorno take the Enlightenment as their main focus in their critique of modernity? (2)
- The notion of rationality is rooted in the Enlightenment
- They feel that modern rationality is a betrayal of the Enlightenment
In what way do Horkheimer & Adorno see the modern notion of rationality as a betrayal of the Enlightenment?
- The concept of rationality that become popular is the belief that increase of knowledge should liberate the individual
- They felt Enlightenment philosophers simply replaced one superstition by the other: Christianity with a ‘faith’ in the natural sciences
Horkheimer & Adorno use De Maistre to make a philosophical point. Which point to they make?
The point that empiricism is a way of thinking that merely touches upon the surface of things, not their essences
What do Horkheimer & Adorno combine with their critique of empiricism?
A Nietzschean philosophy of power
In what way do Horkheimer & Adorno identify a Nietzschean philosophy of power in the Enlightenment?
Francis Bacon, the father of empiricism, had intended the pursuit of knowledge to increase our power over nature -> he was out to dominate nature, rather than learn about its secrets
What do Horkheimer & Adorno identify as wrong with the element of a ‘will to power’ in the Enlightenment?
The Enlightenment was not aimed at liberating, bur rather at subjugating through gathering power
In what way do Horkheimer & Adorno introduce a Marxist element in their critique of Enlightenment?
They see the Enlightenment/empiricist tendency to want to reduce nature to mathematical formulas as a bourgeois obsession and an improper way of philosophy
Why do Horkheimer & Adorno feel that reducing nature to mathematical formulas is improper philosophy? Who had also been critical of this?
It contains the assumption that nature can be structured according to mathematics
At the ‘end’ of the Enlightenment, Kant had already been critical of this supposition
What do Horkheimer & Adorno feel should have been the goals of the Enlightenment?
- To question the nature of thought itself -> philosophy as an essentially reflective exercise
- To question the purpose of supposedly logical reasoning
What do Horkheimer & Adorno see as wrong with logical reasoning?
It builds on the axion that statements are either true or false; conceals the fact that there may be things beyond our binary attitude
Horkheimer & Adorno see logical reasoning as being favourable to those already in power. Why?
Its binary attitude demonstrates an unwillingness to explore alternatives; this benefits those who are already in power: the goal of liberation has been betrayed by the Enlightenment
In which area of philosophy do Horkheimer & Adorno see the most evident example of false rationality? Why?
Moral philosophy; despite attacking Christian morality, the Enlightenment never came up with a credible alternative.
What is the main message of Enlightenment moral philosophy?
The most important moral drive we all share is the drive for self-preservation
What is dangerous about the main message of Enlightenment moral philosophy according to Horkheimer & Adorno?
The belief that the most important drive we all share is the drive of self-preservation makes it easy to justify exploitation of the masses by capitalists
Who is, according to Horkheimer & Adorno, responsible for the strenghtening of the belief that we are all self-serving utilitarians?
Mass media
What are Horkheimer & Adorno’s grievances with mass media?
It creates a cultural industry, aimed at deceiving the masses. These mass media propagate the status quo: the American dream of individual success and achievement
What do Horkheimer & Adorno see as the pinnacle of mass media? What fault do they see in it?
Hollywood; it tries to reproduce reality closely in art, thus taking away the aspect of art that feeds our imagination, and that enables us to think about worlds other than the one we live in
Why do Horkheimer & Adorno argue that American culture does not really exist?
Culture has become part of the entertainment industry
What is Horkheimer & Adorno’s stance on the relation between the Enlightenment and the holocaust?
Horkheimer see the holocaust as the final & most gruesome product of Enlightenment
On the basis of which meditations do Horkheimer & Adorno connect the Enlightenment and the holocaust? (2)
They do so based on two meditations:
1. A meditation on antisemitism
2. They way Enlightenment has shaped thinking into problems and solutions
What is Adorno & Horkheimers meditation on how the Enlightenment connects to antisemitism?
Antisemitism is the inability to come to terms with something alien to you. This is a product of the Enlightenment’s failure to accomodate for that what is different.
In what way has the Enlightenment’s way of shaping thinking into ‘problems’ and ‘solutions’ contributed to the holocaust?
The Nazis identified a problem and decided to respond with a rational solution: to remove the problem. They did so with a mathematical & scientific approach: the holocuast is the triumph of instrumentalist reason
