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Reflective Rationality and the Claim of D ialectic of E nlightenment
Author(s) -
Noppen PierreFrançois
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
european journal of philosophy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.42
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1468-0378
pISSN - 0966-8373
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-0378.2012.00538.x
Subject(s) - rationality , enlightenment , criticism , epistemology , value (mathematics) , focus (optics) , core (optical fiber) , face (sociological concept) , philosophy , sociology , computer science , political science , law , social science , physics , telecommunications , optics , machine learning
That something is profoundly wrong with the way in which enlightenment has unfolded has widely been taken to be the main thrust of D ialectic of E nlightenment . In this paper, I propose to defend that to understand the book and shed light on some of its most puzzling features, one should rather take H orkheimer and A dorno's critical claim at face value: through their criticism they contend to have prepared a positive concept of enlightenment. How this can be so is the question I want to answer. I defend that what we need is an account that works out the conceptual grounds on which their critique can operate. The focus of my attempt will consist in understanding (1) what they mean when they assert that rationality is intrinsically social and (2) how they conceive of rationality as being reflective at its core.