Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor W. Adorno

They cite other intellectuals such as Nietzsche, who “Stressed the bourgeois Enlightenment element in Homer.” (44) They accuse others such as Borchardt of “failing to perceive what epic and myth actually have in common: domination and exploitation.” Horkheimer and Adorno explain that “Aboriginal myth already contains that aspect of deception which triumphs in the fraudulence of Fascism yet imputes the same practice of lies to the Enlightenment.” (45) For these two men the “reduction and malleability of men are worked for as progress”(44) aka modernity, which is worshiped from the standpoint of enlightenment discourse. Horkheimer and Adorno’s next chapter, “Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment” They link Homer’s Odyssey to the enlightenment, claiming that enlightenment discourse can be found as far back as this epic poem. The difference between the old myth and the new enlightenment discourse is the latter assumes more legitimacy and power because it is now explained using reason. Using logic as a continuation of myth, Nazi Germany was able to rationally explain that the Jews were an inferior race, and worthy only of extinction. He knows them in so far as he can manipulate them.” (9) They see this intellectual movement as a totalitarian regime that uses logic to manipulate the masses into submission. They write, “Myth turns into enlightenment, and nature into mere objectivity… Enlightenment behaves towards things as a dictator toward men.

For Horkheimer and Adorn the Enlightenment is simply a continuation of myth that has been exalted into a status of supreme power, backed by rational. The book is divided into five chapters beginning with an explanation of the concept of enlightenment. Dialectic is an exploration of modernism gone awry, with a conclusion that can be summed up in five words: “The Enlightenment lead to Nazism.” Their purpose for the book is quite personal they experienced firsthand the terrors of Nazism, and wish to discover “why mankind, instead of entering into a truly human condition, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism.” (xi) The book also has Marxist undertones to its evaluation of consumerism as a product of the Enlightenment. Horkheimer and Adorno, both members of the Frankfurt School of theory and political refugees escaping Nazi Germany collaborated on the piece while in America. Very much a product of its time, Dialectic of Enlightenment has remained a classic.

Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment, Herder and Herder, New York, 1944.

Dialectic of Enlightenment by Theodor W. Adorno