Adorno and Horkheimer's obscure and nihilistic text Dialectic of Enlightenment (DoE) is an attempt to answer the question 'why mankind, instead of entering a truly human condition, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism' (DoE, p.xi). The result is a totalising critique of modernity; a diagnosis of why the Enlightenment project failed with no attempt to prescribe a cure. This is achieved by a historical-philosophical study of the mythic world-view of animism and anthropomorphism and the Enlightenment attempt to dissolve myth through objectification and instrumental reason. DoE also uses Homer's Odyssey as a metaphorical interpretation of this historical change, where Odysseus is the prototype of the bourgeois man.

This study reveals for Adorno and Horkheimer the failure of the Enlightenment project. Enlightenment has no claim to being less a myth than the mythology it failed to escape. This new myth is defined for them by the drive to dominate nature at the expense of alienation of man from nature and from his own inner nature. They follow the appearance of the subject as it is objectified alongside nature, and is dom

The third disastrous result of enlightenment Adorno and Horkheimer consider is a political one. They believe class society is an inevitable consequence of man's attempt to dominate nature. This is a result of the need for intensive labour in domination of nature and the reification of man.

The task of labour, which is the means to the domination of nature, is the division of labour at the industrial stage of enlightenment (p22). The labourers complete conformism to the instrumental means of domination, ('the labourers must be fresh and concentrated as they look ahead, and must ignore whatever lies to one side' (p.34)), his complete dedication to labour and his ignorance of the workings of all but his own task means he cannot concern himself with his own preservation but must rely on a dominant other. This requires a class of administrators and enforcer to ensure no deviation. Any behaviour not conducive to domination of nature 'suffers the force of the collective, which monitors it from the classroom to the trade union' (p.28). Deviation from the direction of the collective is either a crime of an act of madness.

Adorno and Horkheimer write 'What appears to be the triumph of subjective rationality, the subjection of all reality to logical formalism, is paid for by the obedient subjection of reason to what is directly given' (p.26). Since the sole aim of man in Enlightenment becomes the domination of nature, rationality becomes merely instrumental to this end. All thought which goes outside the formal laws of nature is condemned as meaningless, hence, thought must conform to nature, 'it is the servant that the master cannot check as he wishes' (p.37). Our control over the self diminishes as enlightenment progresses, until it becomes an 'automatic, self-activating process'. In this process not only has man restricted the self to pure instrumentality but also he has completed his alienation from nature. Thought projects itself onto nature in order to control it but the process is reflective. The formal rules it applies to nature, in order to control it, are reflected back onto thought thus restricting it. 'Thought becomes mere tautology' (p.27). Thought, and hence man, is totally alienated from nature and must give up the claim to know nature in any way other than in its manipulation (p.18)#.

In the following sections I will elaborate on why the Enlightenment is considered mythic and a regression of civilization. The negative aspects of the mythic Enlightenment are threefold: The alienation of man from nature, the objectification and repression of the self and the domination of men over men.

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Approximate Word count = 3182
Approximate Pages = 13 (250 words per page double spaced)