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The Implication of Instrumental Reason in The Cultural Paradox of Enlightenment
The Implication of Instrumental Reason in The Cultural Paradox of Enlightenment
OF ENLIGHTENMENT
- Francisco de Goya1
Man exults himself with his rational faculty, rightfully and solely innate to him. To
have this faculty makes man different from that of the genus of animals. But really, how
Man now lives in an era of modern technological advancement, state of the art
inventions and innovations, mind-boggling discoveries and the ever expanding horizon
of knowledge available for the betterment and maximization of productivity. The modern
era boasts of its capacity to make human life, seemingly, easier and more productive.
and it is present anywhere - from the understanding of even the tiniest microscopic
1Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746–1828) is regarded as the most important Spanish artist of the
late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. He was a Spanish artist whose paintings, drawings, and engravings
reflected contemporary historical upheavals and influenced important 19th- and 20th-century painters. The series
of etchings The Disasters of War (1810–14) records the horrors of the Napoleonic invasion.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francisco-Goya (accessed April 6, 2018). Etching is a printmaking technique
that uses chemical action to produce incised lines in a metal printing plate which then hold the applied ink and
form the image. The plate, traditionally copper but now usually zinc, is prepared with an acid-resistant ground
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/e/etching (accessed April 6, 2018). One of Goya’s masterpieces is entitled
The Sleep of Reason Produces monsters which depicts, In the image, an artist, asleep at his drawing table, is
besieged by creatures associated in Spanish folk tradition with mystery and evil. The title of the print, emblazoned
on the front of the desk, is often read as a proclamation of Goya’s adherence to the values of the Enlightenment—
without Reason, evil and corruption prevail https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/becoming-
modern/romanticism/romanticism-in-spain/a/goya-the-sleep-of-reason-produces-monsters?
utm_campaignID=1338305937&utm_campaignname=humanities&utm_keyword=&utm_device=c&gclid=EAIaIQob
ChMImKaludyk2gIVCiQrCh0pPAyHEAAYASAAEgLpafD_BwE (accessed April 6, 2018).
new home that humanity could colonize and occupy extending even to the farthest
It seems that humanity has just made a quantum leap, not to mention the rise of
literacy, mass media, growth and tolerance of political and social beliefs, emergence of
social sciences and anthropology, beginning of modern psychology, and the seeming
irrelevance and disenfranchisement of faith and religion when faced in the evolutionary
thinking of geology, biology, politics and social sciences. 2 From all these can be
deduced its common denominator- the disenchantment of the world 3, and with it the
progress of reason, and the mastery of nature. 4 Surely, Man did a good job as regards
Ever since man made its first step toward progress, reason had been its driving
force. It accompanied progress, facilitated the realization of its potentials, regulated the
advances made and set the limits of innovations that might cause unwanted effects.
Progress is espoused to the very substance of reason. They are inseparable. Every act
of man that tends toward progress passes through the filters of reason. What he wills,
reason would classify, infer and then deduce from it that which makes the act
reasonable5.
3 Max Horkheimer and Theodor Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenmet. Ed. Gunzelin Schmid Noerr, Trans.
Edmund Jephcott (California: Stanford University Press, 2002), 1.
4Ibid., 19.
the emancipation of reason itself. As reason acquires more knowledge, every inch of
progress also sets into motion, toward another actuality; hence, as man progresses he
is also enlightened.
Max Horkhiemer and Theodore Adorno, both German philosophers from the
widest sense, is the advance of thought, and has always aimed at liberating human
beings from fear and installing them as masters.” 7The more man knows the more he is
then dominate it. As he is enlightened the more then that he imposes his sovereignty
over nature. For him to exercise fully this dominion he must first know for, as
Horkheimer and Adorno puts it, knowledge is power. 8 Knowledge frees man from the
universal feeling of fear and disillusionment. 9 He fears because he does not know,
6 The Institute for Social Research, or Frankfurt School, is an interdisciplinary research center associated
with the University of Frankfurt in Germany and responsible for the founding and various trajectories of Critical
Theory in the contemporary humanities and social sciences. Three generations of critical theorists have emerged
from the Institute. The first generation was most prominently represented in the twentieth century by Max
Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse, Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Leo Löwenthal, and also for some time Erich
Fromm. The so-called ‘second generation’ of the Institute is centrally represented by Jürgen Habermas, whose work
has functioned as the focal point of a wide range of critical theorists. The third generation of the Frankfurt School is
represented by Axel Honneth who emerged as a new center, with different strands or readings of who else belongs
to the third generation, some in Germany, some internationally, and some more in sociology and social and political
theory than philosophy.
Frankfurt School: Institute for Social Research. Available from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304183835_Frankfurt_School_Institute_for_Social_Research (accessed
Apr 06 2018).
8 Ibid., 2.
This domination of nature can be best seen in the realm of science, although not
limited there. As biology discovers the mysteries of living creatures, astronomy, the
outer space, and physics, the laws and principle of the physical world, they developed
the capacity to manipulate it and even transform it as means to progress. This made
However, as observed, neither the rational liberation nor domination of nature was
wholly beneficial to man. Time has proven that rational emancipation is also manifesting
itself on mere rationalization of means. The holocaust, for example, was a systematic
genocide of six million European Jews only because Hitler hated them and that he saw
them as an inferior race compared to Germans. It was a heinous act of murder and yet
the persons in authority did not deem it wholly an evil act, or if ever they did, they saw
that the act itself will produce a good greater than that of the act itself; hence the act
becomes reasonable for it served another purpose, and that is the elimination of
‘germs’.11 The reason for that act is used merely as a tool for it derives its meaning
11 The first part or foundation of Hitler's ideology was his conception of Germany as a living organism, the
second part—source of all that followed—was his belief that the nation was suffering from a disease that might
prove fatal. From the earliest days of the National Socialist movement, Hitler and other Nazis were haunted by the
specter of a disease within the body politic that could lead to the death and disappearance of the German nation.
Hitler believed that his role as political leader was first to diagnosis or disclose the cause of Germany's illness; and
secondly to act to cure the disease. That disease are the Jews. Hitler identified the Jew as the source of Germany's
disease: a pathogen whose continuing presence within the nation would lead to its demise. It was necessary,
therefore—in order to cure Germany's disease—to eliminate the Jew from within the body politic. According to
Hitler's biological conception of politics, rescuing the life of Germany required removing from within the body
politic the source of her disease. The Nazi movement was conceived as a struggle of life against death: between the
healthy German organism, and the viral Jewish element. A German medical journal in June 1935 explained that just
as weak people were liable to succumb to tuberculosis more easily than strong ones, so only racially weak people
would "fall victim to the bacilli of Jewish infection."
through its connection with other ends. 12 Thus there is no such thing as reasonable in
itself i.e. “purged of any objective content, nor a particular reality seem reasonable per
emptied of any objective content. 14 That objective content, for him, is the type of reason
that is focused not on the co-ordination of behavior and aim, but on concepts -however
mythological they sound to us today- on the idea of the greatest good, on the problem of
human destiny, and on the way of the realization of ultimate goals… it is a principle
inherent in reality.”15 This is the foundation that supported the idea of justice, equality,
happiness, democracy and property. 16 A view which holds that something is present in
reality that is universally true. A view which holds that such concept exists in extra-ego
and extra mental reality, Concepts that ought to direct man’s actions and decisions
“On the one hand, as its essence, a structure inherent in reality that
by itself calls for a specific mode of behavior in each specific case,
be it practical or theoretical. This structure is accessible to him who
https://www.libraryofsocialscience.com/ideologies/resources/koenigsberg-ideology-perception/index.html
(accessed April 8, 2018).
13 Ibid., 7
14 Ibid., 35
15Ibid., 5.
16Ibid., 20.
takes upon himself the effort of dialectical thinking, or, identically,
who is capable of eros. On the other hand, the term objective reason
may also designate the very effort and ability to reflect such an
objective order.”17
It is clear in the above statement that objective reason was not meant to exist by
itself. It calls for the subject to reflect upon the reality which he is in. No wonder
part on our ability to interpret accurately the profound changes now taking place in the
public mind and in human nature.”18 Hence, to reflect upon the profound changes
able to interpret whether reality is still in accordance with the objective order or not.
Horkheimer continues, that the proponents of this objective type of reason, “Held
to such ideas because they saw in them elements of truth, because they connected
them with the idea of logos, whether in the form of God, or of transcendental mind, or
even of nature as an eternal principle.” 19 This view dates back from the ancient
One particular proponent of this reason are the religions in the world. They
which are the ethical principles such as, killing is bad and that life is sacred and that it
should be preserved.
mind according to which… the subject alone can genuinely have reason… and
18Ibid., vi.
19Ibid., 34.
thereby co-ordinate the right means with the given end.” 20This view relies on the subject
as the one who makes his acts or thoughts reasonable and not on whether his line of
The changes in reality and in the thinking of man paved the way to the line of reasoning
that man is the master of his self. There is no God, nor transcendental mind that will
make man a better version of himself except his own. He can live according to what he
desires. His decision will be affected by what he think will be of great contribution to his
self-realization. The subject now has the final say. He can manipulate reality
accordingly. Having been harnessed of its objective content, reason has become merely
subjective, which continues to push objectivity into the threshold of oblivion and
irrelevance. Reality becomes dependent on the decision of the subject which makes
In turn, the alteration of reason, from the interplay of both subjective and objective,
subject.21 Instead of being reason in itself, reason can only be reasonable through its
harmony with man’s desires. It has given up its dignity as the measuring rod of man’s
reduced to that mere state, for self-preservation and servant of man’s self-interests.
However, the problem with the alteration of reason is that, with all the different self-
21Ibid., 35.
22Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason, 21
certain point to enter into a crisis of reason or the incapability to conceive objectivity at
Reason was held to be the guiding the principles of reality. It was assumed to be
that which makes everything reasonable and meaningful. But because the subject has
been put to the position where he is the one who identifies what is reasonable and what
is not, it affects even the very foundation that affirms the reasonability of an act or
thought.
23 Ibid.
24Ibid., 7-8.
25Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason, 23.
Again, since objective reason was meant to be the guiding principle of man’s
actions and decisions, it should have been the basis of what man ought to do. It is only
up to him to reflect on it and then decide whether an act or certain end is reasonable
enough to be pursued. However since objective reason was regarded obsolete and
irrelevant, nothing or no one has the authority to judge anything to be reasonable except
theoretical basis of mythology, religious and rationalistic idea” 26, from which the very
idea of objective concept of reason itself was deposited. “The more ideas become
automatic, intrumentalized the less does anybody see in them thoughts with meaning in
their own.”27
liberation of reason from fear and myth, and even enlightenment itself, is in danger of
reverting into regression28, and “man instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking
into a new kind of barbarism”. 29 That Neo-Barbarism is not anymore sheer brutality or
extreme cruelty because of the drive for survival, but cruelty and brutality, coupled with
liberate man from slavery to superstition and lack of progress in his way of life to a
prosperous kind of life. Even “in modern times, reason has displayed a tendency to
26Ibid., 34.
27Ibid., 21-22.
29Ibid., xiv.
dissolve its own objective content.”30 Unfortunately, the supposed domination of the
“The enemy is not reason, but the absence of it” or the wrong or abusive use of
obsession for authority, are just but some of the acts which seem unreasonable, yet
they happen. If man is a rational being, he must have thought about the act before
doing it. He must have weighed the reasons for doing such acts. If so, why do such
things happen when in fact even a common person could judge those acts as morally
wrong? The author of those acts must have thought the act served a higher purpose,
more good than the act itself. But, was it really good? From what ground can it be
judged unjustifiable when reason itself is devoid of any objective content so as to pass
preference that it has finally renounced even the task of passing judgment on man's
actions and way of life.”32 “Reason was supposed to regulate our preferences and our
relations with other human beings and with nature”, 33 but now with all the outward
irrationality of the world, reason has turned them over for ultimate sanction to the
Reason is having a disease, and that disease of reason is that reason that was
born from man’s urge to dominate nature and the recovery depends on insight into the
nature of the original disease rather than on the cure of the latest symptoms. 35 It is
needed to be done because man have been so used to rationalizing means. They have
even managed to build logically constructed theories of persecution. 36 This must have
been the reason why Horkheimer engaged in a self-crtique of reason,37 because what
he meant by insight is not merely to know something on that disease, but to engaged it
Enlightenment was supposed to liberate man and his rational faculty from myths
and superstitions. It sought to make man know more and understand more so that he
could maximize his full potentials and capacities. It was supposed to make man’s life
harmonious with what really is true, good and beautiful. Yet, the fully enlightened earth
radiates disaster triumphant".38 One particular example which Horkheimer is pointing out
to is the Nazi Death Camp. “For Horkheimer and Adorno, enlightenment reaches its limit
in the Nazi death camps. Here the process of the rationalization of means had come to
its extreme. The most enlightened techniques are needed to put as many people to
34 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37Ibid., 177.
threshold. It has completely transformed man and nature into mere objects and means.
fails to qualify as reasonable means to other’s self-interest. The genocide was merely a
means and was rationalized because it served another purpose. Everything was either
useful or thrown out. As objects, they are used as tools. These and other negative
implications are the cause of instrumental reason. The line of thinking that asks, “What
is it good for? How is that useful?” 40and instead of having intrinsic value, anything can
This project would discuss instrumental reason from the thoughts of Max
Horkheimer and its adverse effects on enlightenment. The effects could still manifest
itself even up until now. This work hopes to provide an understanding as to why
violence, exploitations, oppressions and other acts of the same degree happens,
39 Daniel Malloy, Dialectic and Enlightenment: The Concept of Enlightenment in Hegel and Horkheimer-
Adorno. Auslegung, Vol. 27, No. 2 (University of South Carolina), 43.
40Ibid, 50.
41 Ibid.