Moral-philosophical vocabulary survives only through unacknowledged memory of its theological origins.

Evidence

Phrases like `the dignity of man’ either imply a dialectical advance in which the idea of divine right is preserved and transcended, or become hackneyed slogans that reveal their emptiness as soon as somebody inquires into their specific meaning. Their life depends, so to speak, on unconscious memories. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 371

Categorization

• DEFINE: A precise formulation of what ‘dialectical advance’ means for Horkheimer: preservation-and-transcendence (Aufhebung) of divine right within secular human dignity.
• XREF: Connects to Walter Benjamin’s similar claim that historical meaning depends on anamnestic, unconscious memory. — connects to: Religious concepts persist through minimal counterintuitiveness that is memorable without rupturing meaning; Modern faith in automatic progress persists without remembering its religious origins — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 161; Explaining morality as mere authority leaves its ultimate origin unexplained — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 126 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Religious concepts persist through minimal counterintuitiveness that is memorable without rupturing meaning; Modern faith in automatic progress persists without remembering its religious origins — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and…, 161; Explaining morality as mere authority leaves its ultimate origin unexplained — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 126 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Secularized moral concepts inherit Christian forms while losing their epistemic grounding. #expands (0.95) — Wael Hallaq, Restating Orientalism, 993