Consequences of Enlightenment

Literature, Culture, Theory

by Anthony J. Cascardi

What is the relationship between contemporary intellectual culture and the European Enlightenment? In Consequences of Enlightenment, Anthony Cascardi revisits the arguments advanced in Horkheimer and Adorno's seminal work Dialectic of Enlightenment. Cascardi argues that postmodern culture does not reject Enlightenment beliefs and explores the link between aesthetics and politics in thinkers as diverse as Habermas, Derrida, Arendt, Nietzsche, Hegel and Wittgenstein. He reverses the tendency to see art simply in terms of the worldly practices among which it is situated. Aesthetic objects, he argues, are themselves capable of disclosing truth.

278 pages, Hardcover

First published February 4, 1999

Reviews

[Alicia]

I have not (yet) read most of these post-Enlightenment thinkers (substantially, only Hegel, Wittgenstein, Adorno, Derrida, and Arendt) so a lot of this went over my head. But Cascardi provides a deep, intricate, and clear defense of the Enlightenment through its consequential thinking in contemporary critical theory. Looking forward to returning to this book in the future.