![]() The capitalist system can be seen to have a directly proportionate relationship with instrumental reason. This single aspect of science equates basically to instrumental reason. There is an intrinsic relationship between instrumental reason and science the factual and ahistorical functionality of science informs how human beings can manipulate (technology) and master (dominate) the natural world, that is, informs the means toward self-preservation as an end. ![]() This by no means began with the Enlightenment, but rather with the first “mastery of nature”, or the first use of technology in a Heideggerian sense, that is, a making over nature for human purposes.Ī turn away from myth to science marks heavily the period of Enlightenment, an idea Horkheimer takes to task, of which more will be said later. The ego, used here in the Freudian sense, is a product of instrumental reason, shaped by a mastery over nature, and “is the subject that irresistibly charges ahead in the process of enlightenment”. This fairly morbid account of reason seems to justify the perceived the pessimism of the Frankfurt school, and particularly that of Horkheimer, pessimism that only intensified in his later work. Instrumental reason has two opposing elements: the abstract ego emptied of all substance except its attempt to transform everything in heaven and on earth into means for its preservation, and on the other hand an empty nature degraded to mere material, mere stuff to be dominated, without any other purpose than that of this very domination. This, according to Horkheimer is the sole function of human reason today. Instrumental reason, or subjective reason, can be described as a tool for human self-preservation self orientated thought an instrument concerned with instrumentalising the world to the advantage of the subject. For Antonio, it was the abolition of absolute reason, which allowed for the unchecked domination of nature and human beings. However, for Horkheimer the Enlightenment emphasised the practical advantages of instrumental reason. The Age of Enlightenment of the 18 th Century is generally acknowledged as the emancipation of consciousness. ![]() The paper will begin by defining instrumental reason and its peculiarities for Horkheimer. Further will be a counter-critique, posed by Jürgen Habermas that illustrates the paradox in Horkheimer, then finally a fleeting look toward a way out of Horkheimer’s paradox from Habermas. This paper takes a brief but insightful look at Horkheimer’s critique of instrumental reason and how it leads human beings to dominate over nature, themselves and each other. Here, Horkheimer further explores the claims to emancipation that arose from this time, and in doing so links the Enlightenment to instrumental rationality and the domination over nature, and further to capitalism, self-preservation and the repression that arises from it. His most famous publication Dialectic of Enlightenment deals with the consequences of the period of ‘so-called’ Enlightenment of the 18 th century. Heavily influenced by Marx, Hegel and Kant, Horkheimer’s early work focused around suffering and happiness, emancipation and rationality, and critiques of metaphysics and positivism. As the founder of the Frankfurt school in the 1930s, Max Horkheimer’s work set a formalised foundation for the previously undefined philosophical area of Critical Theory (with capitals).
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