Civilizational ideals are nature’s protests, not eternal truths.

Evidence

Distorted though the great ideals of civilizationjustice, equality, freedommay be, they are nature’s protestations against her plight, the only formulated testimonies we possess. … Wherever a metaphysical system presents these testimonies as absolute or eternal principles, it exposes their historical relativity. Philosophy rejects the veneration of what is finite, not only of crude political or economic idols, such as the nation, the leader, success, or money, but also of ethical or esthetic values such as personality, happiness, beauty, or even liberty, so far as they pretend to be independent ultimates. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 372

Categorization

• DEFINE: Explains why philosophy must reject even liberty and beauty as ultimates: their claim to independence from history is what is being denied.
• XREF: Echoes Adorno’s insistence that the non-identical resists being frozen into a positive absolute — the negative dialectic in miniature.