Description:
Stanford University Press. Used - Good. Ships from the UK. Former library book; may include library markings. Used book that is in clean, average condition without any missing pages.
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Dialectic of Enlightenment Hardcover - 2002 - 1st Edition
by Max Horkheimer; Theodor W. Adorno; Gunzelin Schmid Noeri (Editor)
From the rear cover
Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism."
Yet the work goes far beyond a mere critique of contemporary events. Historically remote developments, indeed, the birth of Western history and of subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as represented in myths, are connected in a wide arch to the most threatening experiences of the present.
The book consists in five chapters, at first glance unconnected, together with a number of shorter notes. The various analyses concern such phenomena as the detachment of science from practical life, formalized morality, the manipulative nature of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioral structure, expressed in aggressive anti-Semitism, that marks the limits of enlightenment. The authors perceive a common element in these phenomena, the tendency toward self-destruction of the guiding criteria inherent in enlightenment thought from the beginning. Using historical analyses to elucidate the present, they show, against the background of a prehistory of subjectivity, why the National Socialist terror was not an aberration of modern history but was rooted deeply in the fundamental characteristics of Western civilization.
Adorno and Horkheimer see the self-destruction of Western reason as grounded in a historical and fateful dialectic between the domination of external nature and society. They trace enlightenment, which split these spheres apart, back to its mythical roots. Enlightenment and myth, therefore, are not irreconcilable opposites, but dialectically mediated qualities of both real and intellectual life. "Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." This paradox is the fundamental thesis of the book.
This new translation, based on the text in the complete edition of the works of Max Horkheimer, contains textual variants, commentary upon them, and an editorial discussion of the position of this work in the development of Critical Theory.
Yet the work goes far beyond a mere critique of contemporary events. Historically remote developments, indeed, the birth of Western history and of subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as represented in myths, are connected in a wide arch to the most threatening experiences of the present.
The book consists in five chapters, at first glance unconnected, together with a number of shorter notes. The various analyses concern such phenomena as the detachment of science from practical life, formalized morality, the manipulative nature of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioral structure, expressed in aggressive anti-Semitism, that marks the limits of enlightenment. The authors perceive a common element in these phenomena, the tendency toward self-destruction of the guiding criteria inherent in enlightenment thought from the beginning. Using historical analyses to elucidate the present, they show, against the background of a prehistory of subjectivity, why the National Socialist terror was not an aberration of modern history but was rooted deeply in the fundamental characteristics of Western civilization.
Adorno and Horkheimer see the self-destruction of Western reason as grounded in a historical and fateful dialectic between the domination of external nature and society. They trace enlightenment, which split these spheres apart, back to its mythical roots. Enlightenment and myth, therefore, are not irreconcilable opposites, but dialectically mediated qualities of both real and intellectual life. "Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." This paradox is the fundamental thesis of the book.
This new translation, based on the text in the complete edition of the works of Max Horkheimer, contains textual variants, commentary upon them, and an editorial discussion of the position of this work in the development of Critical Theory.
Details
- Title Dialectic of Enlightenment
- Author Max Horkheimer; Theodor W. Adorno; Gunzelin Schmid Noeri (Editor)
- Binding Hardcover
- Edition number 1st
- Edition 1
- Pages 304
- Volumes 1
- Language ENG
- Publisher Stanford University Press
- Date 2002-03-27
- Features Bibliography
- ISBN 9780804736329 / 0804736324
- Weight 1.19 lbs (0.54 kg)
- Dimensions 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 in (23.11 x 15.24 x 2.29 cm)
- Library of Congress Catalog Number 2002000073
- Dewey Decimal Code 193
About the author
More Copies for Sale
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Dialectic of Enlightenment
by Adorno, Theodor W., Horkheimer, Max
- Used
- Condition
- Used - Good
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804736329 / 0804736324
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Dunfermline, Fife, United Kingdom
- Item Price
-
$45.92$10.00 shipping to USA
Show Details
Item Price
$45.92
$10.00
shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Dialectic of Enlightenment (Cultural Memory in the Present)
by Horkheimer, Max
- Used
- Good
- Hardcover
- Condition
- Used - Good
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804736329 / 0804736324
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
Newport Coast, California, United States
- Item Price
-
$99.72FREE shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
hardcover. Good. Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items. May be an ex-library book.
Item Price
$99.72
FREE shipping to USA
Dialectic of Enlightenment
by Max Horkheimer
- New
- Hardcover
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804736329 / 0804736324
- Quantity Available
- 10
- Seller
-
Southport, Merseyside, United Kingdom
- Item Price
-
$160.22$12.76 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Hardback. New. This is a new, improved translation of the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Adorno and Horkheimer aimed "to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism."
Item Price
$160.22
$12.76
shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments
by Max Horkheimer/ Theodor Adorno
- New
- Hardcover
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804736329 / 0804736324
- Quantity Available
- 2
- Seller
-
Exeter, Devon, United Kingdom
- Item Price
-
$166.01$12.82 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Stanford Univ Pr, 2002. Hardcover. New. 1st edition. 282 pages. 9.25x6.50x1.00 inches.
Item Price
$166.01
$12.82
shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Dialectic of Enlightenment (Cultural Memory in the Present)
by Horkheimer, Max; Adorno, Theodor W.; Noeri, Gunzelin Schmid [Editor]; Jephcott, Edmund [Translator];
- New
- Hardcover
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804736329 / 0804736324
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Seller
-
San Diego, California, United States
- Item Price
-
$129.54$5.45 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
Stanford University Press, 2002-03-27. Hardcover. New. New. In shrink wrap. Looks like an interesting title!
Item Price
$129.54
$5.45
shipping to USA
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different
Dialectic of Enlightenment
by Horkheimer, Max
- New
- Condition
- New
- ISBN 10 / ISBN 13
- 9780804736329 / 0804736324
- Quantity Available
- 63
- Seller
-
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
- Item Price
-
$171.00$14.99 shipping to USA
Show Details
Description:
STANFORD UNIV PR. New. Special order direct from the distributor
Item Price
$171.00
$14.99
shipping to USA