Enlightenment must critique itself rather than merely defend cultural values

Evidence

The issue is not that of culture as a value, which is what the critics of civilization, Huxley, Jaspers, Ortega y Gasset and others, have in mind. The point is rather that the Enlightenment must examine itself, if men are not to be wholly betrayed. The task to be accomplished is not the conservation of the past, but the redemption of the hopes of the past. Today, however, the past is preserved as the destruction of the past. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 24

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes the Enlightenment’s self-critique from mere ‘critique of civilization’ — a core framing distinction for the whole book.
• XREF: This self-critique-of-reason gesture is precisely the move that later critical-theory descendants (Habermas, Foucault) both inherit and contest. — connects to: Enlightenment can be redeemed from blind domination by self-critique; Critical multiculturalism requires self-critique of one’s own culture first — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 952; Enlightenment does not eliminate myth but re-enters it as secularized domination — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 46 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Critical multiculturalism requires self-critique of one’s own culture first #expands (0.85) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 952