Fascism stripped reason of its metaphysical trappings, exposing it as an organ of self-preservation.

Evidence

My train of thought is very simple. Reason appears to have been discredited by fascism. That is not correct. Fascism has merely cleared away completely the metaphysical categories which were associated with rationalism. Reason was always an organ of self-preservation, which is what, in the most brutal sense, fascism is based on. In fascism, however, the final rationalistic illusion appears: the ego organized for a lifetime, the synthetic unity of the person. The ego is shrinking. This tendency towards shrinkage is identical with the process of expropriating the middle classes. The logical conclusion is the decay of culture, as de Sade and Nietzsche predicted it. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1235

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the Frankfurt School’s distinctive redefinition of reason as self-preservation rather than transcendence.
• XREF: Foreshadows the Dialectic of Enlightenment’s central theses; connects to Horkheimer’s ‘Eclipse of Reason’ and ‘Critique of Instrumental Reason’. — connects to: Fascism exposes rather than discredits reason, which fundamentally serves self-preservation — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 319; Fascism exposed reason as always having been an instrument of self-preservation. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1235

Broader Connections

• Fascism exposed reason as always having been an instrument of self-preservation. #corroborates (0.97) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1235