Dialectic Of Enlightenment, Horkheimer And Adorno

In the first part of Dialectic of Enlightenment, Horkheimer and Adorno mainly discuss the enlightenment. At first they wrote about how the enlightenment was viewed as a positive thing. After they state how enlightenment was viewed in the past, they contrast that view by asserting that enlightenment is the disenchantment of the world. They also say that the enlightenment wanted to dismiss the myths and get rid of fantasy with knowledge. Horkheimer and Adorno also asserted that enlightenment always reverted back to myth. They also argued that the enlightenment demythologized the natural world with knowledge. In the text of Dialectic of Enlightenment, the authors also talk about how myth and enlightenment share the fact that mankind always seeks domination over nature. Horkheimer and Adorno both are critical of the enlightenment and they also seek to redeem it. They also seek to explain that enlightenment will always revert back to myth. In the first chapter titled The Concept of Enlightenment, Horkheimer and Adorno define enlightenment by stating Enlightenment, understood in the widest since as the advance of thought, has always been aimed at liberating human beings from fear and installing them as masters. Yet the wholly enlightened earth is radiant with triumphant calamity. Enlightenment’s program was the disenchantment of the world. It wanted to dispel myths, to overthrow fantasy with knowledge Horkheimer and Adorno first start defining enlightenment as how it wasShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of Horkheimer And Adorno s Dialectic Of Enlightenment700 Words   |  3 PagesPublished in 1944, Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment raises certain themes curated by different institute members of the Frankfurt School. 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