In this video, I look at the first part of Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. I takes an introductory look a the first three parts: The Concept of Enlightenment; Excursus I: Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment; and Excursus II: Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality.

The first part, through some general reflections on Enlightenment, reason, mythology, and totalitarianism, poses that all four are already intertwined. For Adorno and Horkheimer, ‘Myth is already enlightenment; and enlightenment reverts to mythology.’

In the two ‘excursus’ they interpret the Odyssey, Marquis de Sade, and Nietzsche, as backing up this claim. What makes mythology and enlightenment the same? Odysseus is the proto-bourgeois individual using his logic to manipulate nature through instrumental reason so he get home. De Sade uses his logic to get what his passions desire. And Nietzsche is famous for his ‘will to power.’ In all of this, we can see the philosophical roots on totalitarianism.

Both enlightenment and mythology attempt to naturalise the universal rule – attempt to dominate the individual based on an eternal rule of instrumental reason. Even magic was an exchange – a deal with nature, with the gods, to preserve man. All are based on the same logic.

Whether its the codified myth of Scylla and Charybdis. The rationality of working out your desire and convincing others to follow it – if objects are valueless – to be used for the purposes of self-preservation – why would this not apply to people too?

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Sources:

James Bradley, ‘Frankfurt views’, Radical Philosophy, vol. 13 (Spring 1975), pp. 39–40.

David Held, Introduction to Critical Theory

Simon Jarvis, Adorno: A Critical Introduction

Adorno and Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment

James Schmidt, Language, Mythology and Enlightenment: Historical Notes on Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment

Credits:

Adorno and Horkheimer Photo –
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...

Jjshapiro at English Wikipedia [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)]

Stock footage provided by Videvo, downloaded from https://www.videvo.net

Music:

Asher Fulero, Surrender

Lish Grooves, Eddy

Devon Church, The Wish

Liszt, Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2