Dialectic of Enlightenment (Cultural Memory in the Present)

Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism."

Yet the work goes far beyond a mere critique of contemporary events. Historically remote developments, indeed, the birth of Western history and of subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as represented in myths, are connected in a wide arch to the most threatening experiences of the present.

The book consists in five chapters, at first glance unconnected, together with a number of shorter notes. The various analyses concern such phenomena as the detachment of science from practical life, formalized morality, the manipulative nature of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioral structure, expressed in aggressive anti-Semitism, that marks the limits of enlightenment. The authors perceive a common element in these phenomena, the tendency toward self-destruction of the guiding criteria inherent in enlightenment thought from the beginning. Using historical analyses to elucidate the present, they show, against the background of a prehistory of subjectivity, why the National Socialist terror was not an aberration of modern history but was rooted deeply in the fundamental characteristics of Western civilization.

Adorno and Horkheimer see the self-destruction of Western reason as grounded in a historical and fateful dialectic between the domination of external nature and society. They trace enlightenment, which split these spheres apart, back to its mythical roots. Enlightenment and myth, therefore, are not irreconcilable opposites, but dialectically mediated qualities of both real and intellectual life. "Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." This paradox is the fundamental thesis of the book.

This new translation, based on the text in the complete edition of the works of Max Horkheimer, contains textual variants, commentary upon them, and an editorial discussion of the position of this work in the development of Critical Theory.

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2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jun-13-2009; A fabulous book in need of a decent editor; Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, the editor of the Stanford edition of DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT, has taken a dense, difficult book and made it more work to read. Horkheimer and Adorno's "philosophical fragments" reward the reader not only with...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jun-12-2009; Learning how to juggle; This is a book that should change the way the average American thinks. Yes, it is not the easiest book to read and the authors' main ideas are not always readily apparent and schematically laid out. It will take you time to pry them...; read full review | report as inappropriate

4/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Mar-09-2009; Brilliant but arduous; One of the most famous pieces of Finnish prose is 'Seitsemän veljestä' by our national iconic author Aleksis Kivi. Some people even describe it as the first real novel in our literature history due to its self-reflexiness. Within...; read full review | report as inappropriate

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Dec-18-2008; The Frankfurt School states "Enlightenment is totalitarian"; This was required reading for a graduate course in the history of the French Revolution. In their book "Dialectic of Enlightenment", one of the most influential texts of the Frankfurt School (which has a Marxist bent), written by...; read full review | report as inappropriate

Selected Reviews

5/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jun-12-2009; Learning how to juggle; This is a book that should change the way the average American thinks. Yes, it is not the easiest book to read and the authors' main ideas are not always readily apparent and schematically laid out. It will take you time to pry them...; read full review | report as inappropriate

2/5: From: Amazon; Posted: Jun-13-2009; A fabulous book in need of a decent editor; Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, the editor of the Stanford edition of DIALECTIC OF ENLIGHTENMENT, has taken a dense, difficult book and made it more work to read. Horkheimer and Adorno's "philosophical fragments" reward the reader not only with...; read full review | report as inappropriate