Myth was the first failed step toward emancipation, preparing self-destructive enlightenment

Evidence

Enlightenment as such, the argument ran, led to disaster. Disaster, for the two writers, was, true to the Benjamin-Adorno tradition, synonymous with the domination of the mythical. `Enlightenment reverts to mythology’ was therefore another formulation of their thesis. But they were equally concerned to show that myth was already enlightenment. The point of the thesis was that, in that case, enlightenment had not destroyed myth from outside; rather, myth had been the first step towards a failed emancipation from nature and had thus prepared the way for self-destructive enlightenment. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1371

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The Dialectic holds that myth was already enlightenment and prepared self-destructive enlightenment — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1371; Enlightenment regresses into the very myth it claimed to escape; Enlightenment thought posits a primal mythic unity that never actually existed — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 728 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• The Dialectic holds that myth was already enlightenment and prepared self-destructive enlightenment #corroborates (1.00) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1371
• Enlightenment regresses into the very myth it claimed to escape #corroborates (0.90)
• enlightenment is indefatigably self-destructive in its own tendencies #corroborates (0.85)
• Enlightenment thought posits a primal mythic unity that never actually existed #expands (0.75) — Fredric Jameson, Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic…, 728