INI201H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Sapere Aude, Instrumental And Value Rationality, Max Horkheimer
Document Summary
General public: this benefits all of society, which progresses. Critique: conservatives on the dictatorship of the masses . Enlightenment is not a one-off, unique effortthe emergence from immaturity is a historical process: on personal level: sapere aude, on society level: education and culture. Critique: horkheimer: the valorization of scientific reason (i. e. instrumental rationality) as the dominant principle of civilization is na ve and wrongheaded. Critique: adorno: the tools of instrumental rationality are being used to develop the pernicious. Culture industry, a media machine that turns people into complacent idiots who are seduced into relinquishing their autonomy. Critique: derrida: kant"s notion of reason does not stand up to scrutiny. The kantian project seems to think of history as a teleological (i. e. moving inevitably towards an ultimate goal) process towards perfectibility. We have no reason to believe (and it would be an act of faith, not reason) that history is driving towards perfection. Recent history is, in fact, strewn with unprecedented disasters.
