Questioning the price of progress can be framed as the cost of human advancement

Evidence

How can it be that reason denies life, and is at the same time its creator? … I felt that something here was wrong. — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 104 (#expands, via linked claim)

The liberation of citizens from the injustice of the feudalistic and absolutist past served to unleash modern machinery through liberalism, just as the emancipation of women led to their development into a military force. The spirit and all that is good in its origins and existence are inextricably caught up in this network of horror. The serum which a doctor gives a sick child is obtained by attacking defenseless animals. The endearing words of lovers and the holiest symbols of Christianity contain traces of the pleasure felt in devouring the flesh of a kid, just as this pleasure itself reflects an ambiguous respect for the totem animal. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 200 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Human reasoning creates a paradox regarding the value of life. — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 104; Enlightened progress remains entangled with domination and cruelty — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 200

Broader Connections

• Human reasoning creates a paradox regarding the value of life. #expands (0.78) — Leo Tolstoy, A Confession, 104
• Enlightened progress remains entangled with domination and cruelty #exemplifies (0.72) — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 200