Concepts are tools for dominating nature, not for understanding it

Evidence

In thought, men distance themselves from nature in order thus imaginatively to present it to themselves—but only in order to determine how it is to be dominated. Like the thing, the material tool, which is held on to in different situations as the same thing, and hence divides the world as the chaotic, manysided, and disparate from the known, one, and identical, the concept is the ideal tool, fit to do service for everything, wherever it can be applied. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 52

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Adorno’s instrumental conception of the concept as an ‘ideal tool’ for domination.
• XREF: Connects to the culture-industry idea in the next chapter, where concepts are standardised for manipulation. — connects to: Philosophy’s own conceptual method blocks access to the non-conceptual objects it seeks — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1592; Concepts formed without social context restrict and confine knowledge — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 738; Nature’s qualities are historical, not fixed, under human mastery — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 825 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Nature’s qualities are historical, not fixed, under human mastery #expands (0.85) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 825
• Philosophy’s own conceptual method blocks access to the non-conceptual objects it seeks #expands (0.82) — Dirk Braunstein, Adorno’s Critique of Political Economy, 1592
• Concepts are compared by the powers they release, not their origins #expands (0.78)
• Classification enables thought but does not itself constitute understanding. #expands (0.76)
• Concepts formed without social context restrict and confine knowledge #qualifies (0.75) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 738
• The philosophical-scientific worldview blocks environmental ethics from valuing insentient nature #expands (0.73)
• Thought is nature negated, not an appendix of the neuronal. #expands (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, What Should We Do with Our Brain?, 263
• Concepts only become effective when incorporated into sensuous existence #qualifies (0.72) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 973