Dialectic of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer
However, the piece is much more than just a critique of current affairs. The emergence of Western history and subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as depicted in myths, are historically remote occurrences that are, in fact, tied in a broad arc to the most dangerous experiences of the present.
The book is made up of five seemingly unrelated chapters and a number of shorter notes. The numerous assessments focus on issues including the separation of science from a real-world application, formalized morality, the manipulative character of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioural structure that exemplifies the limits of enlightenment through strong anti-Semitism.
Dialectic of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer
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The inclination of the guiding principles to self-destruction that is ingrained in enlightened thought from the start is seen by the writers as a common feature in these phenomena. They demonstrate why the National Socialist terror was not an outlier of contemporary history but rather was deeply established in the essential traits of Western civilisation against the backdrop of a prehistory of subjectivity.
The self-destruction of Western reason, according to Adorno and Horkheimer, has its roots in a tragic historical dialectic between society’s dominance and that of the outside world. They go back to the mythological beginnings of enlightenment to show how it divided these domains. Thus, enlightenment and myth are dialectically mediated aspects of both real existence and intellectual life rather than being incompatible opposites.
