All civilization so far is enlightenment trapped within mythic immanence

Evidence

A complete formulation of the thesis would be: all civilization up to now has consisted of enlightenment trapped in mythic immanence and nipping in the bud every attempt to escape from mythic immanence. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1372

Categorization

• DEFINE: Supplies the book’s own most complete one-sentence formulation of its core thesis — essential reference material.
• DEEPTHINKING: A totalizing historical claim that resists easy summary and invites long reflection on what ‘escaping mythic immanence’ could mean.
• XREF: connects to: Enlightenment regresses into the very myth it claimed to escape; Enlightenment thought posits a primal mythic unity that never actually existed — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 728; Enlightenment does not eliminate myth but re-enters it as secularized domination — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 46 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Enlightenment regresses into the very myth it claimed to escape #corroborates (0.92)
• Enlightenment does not eliminate myth but re-enters it as secularized domination #corroborates (0.90) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 46
• enlightenment is indefatigably self-destructive in its own tendencies #expands (0.80)
• Enlightenment thought posits a primal mythic unity that never actually existed #expands (0.78) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 728
• Belief in a disenchanted outside world is itself the modern enchantment #complicates (0.75) — Timothy Mitchell, Colonising Egypt, 207
• Myth differs from signification in that it escapes any act of consciousness #qualifies (0.72)