Irrationalism diagnoses rationalism’s bankruptcy but serves economic power by demanding submission
Evidence
According to Horkheimer, Irrationalism correctly recognizes that rationalism is bankrupt, but it draws the wrong conclusions. It does not criticize one-sided thinking and egoism in favour of a way of organizing the world which would correspond to the human resources actually available. Instead, it leaves the economic laws which have produced current conditions basically untouched, and serves the interests of those who have economic power, who are merely the executors of economic forces, by encouraging blind recognition of them, demanding submission to the so-called larger, general interest. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 155
Categorization
- DEEPTHINKING: The precise mechanism by which a ‘correct’ diagnosis becomes a tool of domination — Horkheimer’s answer to why irrationalist critique of reason is reactionary rather than liberating.
- XREF: Doppels to the earlier recorded claim that for Horkheimer, irrationalism serves economic power by masking it as larger interest — this passage supplies the full mechanism. — connects to: Irrationalism correctly diagnoses rationalism’s crisis but serves power’s interests. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 548; For Horkheimer, irrationalism serves economic power by masking it as larger interest
Broader Connections
- Irrationalism correctly diagnoses rationalism’s crisis but serves power’s interests.
#expands(0.95) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 548 - For Horkheimer, irrationalism serves economic power by masking it as larger interest
#expands(0.90)