Modern society’s dominant reason is subjective and instrumental

Evidence

In the view, for example, of the pragmatists, or Nietzsche, or Max Weber, or the `average man’, reason was not there to allow judgements concerning goals to be made, but instead to be an instrument in the service of purposes decided upon in other ways. Horkheimer described the form of reason dominant in modern society as being simultaneously subjective and instrumental, since it served to find the correct means of achieving goals which were ultimately always concerned with the subject’s self-preservation. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1456

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines subjective/instrumental reason and identifies its dominance in modern society.
• XREF: Connects to Weber’s instrumental rationality and the means-ends analysis central to Frankfurt School social theory. — connects to: Modern reason is subjective and instrumental; objective reason judges larger purposes. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1456; Reason itself becomes an instrument of domination in late industrial society — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the…, 34; Reason adapts humans to power rather than unifying subject and object (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Reason itself becomes an instrument of domination in late industrial society #corroborates (0.92) — Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man, 34
• Reason adapts humans to power rather than unifying subject and object #expands (0.88)