The concept of enlightenment
This paper seeks to analyze the concept of enlightenment and how Horkheimer and Adorno claim that it has regressed from mythology. In the Dialectic of Enlightenment, Horkheimer and Adorno define the concept of enlightenment not as an eighteenth-century intellectual movement but rather as an advancement of thought. Subsequently, enlightenment is characterized by the liberation of human beings from fears through interaction with the world. Moreover, humans also become the masters of the external environment, which leads to sovereignty. According to Horkheimer and Adorno, another characteristic of enlightenment is invention. In this regard, the authors state that “now we govern nature in opinions, but we are thrall unto her in necessity: but if she would lead us in the invention, we should command her by action” (4). Horkheimer and Adorno believe that enlightenment led humanity away from the fears of magic and rituals that controlled people’s lives in the past. Everything now is considered based on its utility and calculability standards and not “illusion of immanent powers or hidden properties” (3). Another concept of enlightenment is that it is totalitarian. Proponents of enlightenment state that human beings who believe in ghosts, demons and spirits are still frightened by magical realism and are thus not enlightened. Enlightenment has allowed human beings to control nature through sheer understanding. Horkheimer and Adorno believe that historical eras such as myths, magic, metaphysics and positivism have been defined by a remarkable improvement in knowledge acquisition about nature. However, Horkheimer and Adorno view enlightenment as total control over the external environment, which has led to objectification of both nature and humans themselves. Subsequently, the enlightenment, which was meant to be a progression from the previous historical period of myth, has regressed directly back to it.
Enlightenment regresses to mythology because there are striking similarities between the two historical times. Mythology presented humans with the option of submission to a world of mystery, myths and full of capricious spirits and magic. On the other hand, positivism or enlightenment presented humans with the option of subduing nature and turning it into an object of control. However, during the enlightenment period, humans fell into a trap that is strikingly similar to the world of mythology. Humans are so preoccupied with the domination of nature that they have turned to dominate one another. After the domination of nature, there was nothing left to control but fellow human beings. In this regard, the liberation that was expected to be achieved from the world of magic rituals and spirits did not materialize. People have lost their autonomy and have been turned into abstractions controlled by others who have authority. Subsequently, there is a backlash of irrational forces due to humans being reduced to mere statistics and numbers. This is what leads Horkheimer and Adorno to state that “Enlightenment thereby regresses to the mythology it has never been able to escape. For mythology had reflected in its forms the essence of the existing order — cyclical motion, fate, domination of the world as truth — and had renounced hope” (20). Abstraction can be referred to as a modern fate since an individual is not in control of anything. He or she conforms to the norms that society has set and cannot transcend anything’s outcomes. The rule of abstraction turns everyone level and eventually transforms them into the “herd,” which makes up the absurdity of enlightenment. Subsequently, instead of progression, there is a circular historical progression that reverts to the past ages.