Crítica de la razón instrumental

by Max Horkheimer

These essays, written between 1949 and 1967, focus on a single theme: the triumph in the twentieth century of the state-bureaucratic apparatus and ‘instrumental reason’ and the concomitant liquidation of the individual and the basic social institutions and relationships associated with the individual.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Sociology, Theory, Politics, Essays, Research

180 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) was a leader of the so-called “Frankfurt School,” a group of philosophers and social scientists associated with the Institut für Sozialforschung (Institute of Social Research) in Frankfurt am Main. Horkheimer was the director of the Institute and Professor of Social Philosophy at the University of Frankfurt from 1930–1933, and again from 1949–1958. In between those periods he would lead the Institute in exile, primarily in America. As a philosopher he is best known (especially in the Anglophone world), for his work during the 1940s, including Dialectic of Enlightenment, which was co-authored with Theodor Adorno. While deservedly influential, Dialectic of Enlightenment (and other works from that period) should not be separated from the context of Horkheimer's work as a whole. Especially important in this regard are the writings from the 1930s, which were largely responsible for developing the epistemological and methodological orientation of Frankfurt School critical theory. This work both influenced his contemporaries (including Adorno and Herbert Marcuse) and has had an enduring influence on critical theory's later practitioners (including Jürgen Habermas, and the Institute's current director Axel Honneth).

Reviews

[Brandon Sitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If my suspicion is justified, then the contemporary development means the radical elimination of the individual, even if that development should lead not to catastrophe but to greater security, the rationalization of society, planning, and the per capita increase of consumer goods for the population. Given the unpredictable nature of individuals it may well be that they will find the elimination desirable."
The essays "The Concept of Man", "Feudal Lord, Customer, and Specialist", and "Threats to Freedom" most clearly explore the problems inherent in technology's tendency to homogenize everyday life. Bureaucracies, machines, formal education, and economic exchange all ostensibly work to serve human life but these objects and institutions serve humanity more efficiently and to a greater extent if life becomes more regular and predictable. The less each person, household, village, city, or country is differentiated, the more instrumental reason can assist. This creates a sort of co-servility in which we voluntarily give up a part of our humanity to serve machines so that they can more efficiently serve us. As Heidegger says in an interview with Der Spiegel: "Everything functions. That is exactly what is uncanny. Everything functions and the functioning drives us further and further to more functioning, and technology tears people away and uproots them from the earth more and more."

[Nikita Malhotra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having read Heidegger throughout the years, it was nice to revisit similar themes with a Marxist undercurrent. These essays are important to read, not only does it provide us with a glimpse of critical thinking in the 20th century, but also a reason to revisit certain concepts that should not be swept under the historical carpet today.

[Nicolás Qüint · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un trabajo tremendo, hermano complementario de dialéctica de la ilustración.
Parte de su diferenciación entre el concepto de razón objetiva entendida como armonía y revelación de la naturaleza y el concepto de razón subjetiva, asociado a la técnica, sin principios, voluble a cualquier realidad, desde ahí ve que tan lejos puede llegar con su critica, que va desde ver como la razón instrumental deriva en totalitarismos, en filosofías superficiales, incluso en el desprecio anti-intelectual del arte y el pensamiento abstracto.
Según Horkheimer una de las enfermedades clave del clima político y espiritual contemporáneo es que se cosifica a la razón, se la ve como capital económico al cual solo se le puede invertir con una mirada a corto plazo, un libro súper actual para entender fenómenos tan en auge como el anti-intelectualismo y bueno, la plaga que representa el romanticismo político.

[Antonia Faccini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es impresionante la lucidez de Horkheimer en todos los ensayos de este libro. La crítica, como bien lo indica el título de la obra, es dirigida hacia la razón subjetiva (la razón que se ocupa de los medios, la razón instrumental). Dentro de esa crítica Horkheimer explora otros temas que ayudan a sus argumentos: el de la pargamatización de la vida (que es una crítica al pragmatismo y una discusión ardua con Dewey y el positivismo que se extiende desde el primer al último de los ensayos), el de la naturaleza oprimida, el individuo y la masa en la sociedad industrial y en los estados totalitarios, la tarea de la filosofía y la emancipación. Excelente, un pequeño fragmento de la parte de la naturaleza oprimida:

“En el proceso de su emancipación el hombre comparte el destino de todo el resto de su mundo. El dominio de la naturaleza incluye el dominio sobre los hombres. Todo sujeto tiene que participar en el sojuzgamiento de la naturaleza, tanto humana como extrahumana. Y no sólo eso, sino que para conseguirlo tiene que sojuzgar la naturaleza que hay en él mismo. Por mor del dominio mismo, el dominio se ve así «internalizado». Lo que usualmente es caracterizado como un fin —la felicidad del individuo, la salud y la riqueza— obtiene su significación exclusivamente de su posibilidad de convertirse en funcional. Estos conceptos funcionan como indicadores de condiciones favorables para la producción espiritual y material. Precisamente por eso la autonegación del individuo en la sociedad industrial no tiene objetivo alguno que pudiera ir más allá de la propia sociedad industrial. Tal renuncia genera y conlleva racionalidad en lo que hace a los medios e irracionalidad en lo que hace a la existencia humana. La sociedad y sus instituciones llevan, no menos que el individuo mismo, el sello de esta discrepancia.
Como el sojuzgamiento de la naturaleza, dentro y fuera del hombre, sigue su propio curso sin motivo significativo alguno, la naturaleza no es realmente trascendida ni toma cuerpo tampoco una reconciliación con ella. Es simplemente oprimida”.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

Have I read too much? This book makes me think so. As a historical document from one of the founders of the Frankfurt School it is rather valuable. Setting that aside - and in no way trying to diminish the book and especially not Horkheimer as a thinker - this was so dated as to be nearly useless for any current analysis of just about anything, be it reason, politics, man-as-being, social norms, etc. Not much else to say besides I am quite glad I did not actually buy this book. Verso Books publishes a lot of great writings, but I also know they re-publish a lot of older theoretical works that do not always mesh well with the way we think and live, some 50+ years hence (in the case of this book). I know it is important to know where we were, theoretically speaking, to understand where we are now and where we might get to, but this book did not aid in that research for me at all.

[alcapote_]

"In "On the Critique of Instrumental Reason" and "Means and Ends", philosopher Max Horkheimer argued that instrumental rationality plays a key role in the oppressive industrial culture of capitalism." (Wikipedia)

[Clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

Subrayadito y bonito. Es maravilloso.

[Noah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Believing earnestly in liberalism- it is something that we Jews do.

[Fiona Pearl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Foreword and first essay were fire. Rest of it was fine

[Josh Fisher]

Liked “The Concept of Man,” but on the whole this is lesser Horkheimer

[Vinicio Robalino · Rating 5 out of 5]

Obra magna de pura realidad.

[Ibid. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book which reads less like the abstract text of Eclipse of Reason and more like a sociological report. And since it precedes the birth of the postmodern era, it acts only as a prescient historical document for what is to come. So in this sense, the book is not as "timeless" as, I suppose, I would've hoped.

If this is a sociological report on the coming era of postmodernist society, then why not read The Postmodern Condition: A Report On Knowledge? I suppose that book is more centered on information itself and how it affects education and technocracy, while this book looks more at the sociological implications of such—albeit from a bit of a dated perspective.

[Leonardo]

Capítulo 1, para Problemas de Filosofía Contemporánea.

[David Menčik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Retko sam ovoliko kritičan prema knjizi ali pročitao sam nekoliko eseja i delovali su mi kao da piše novinar a ne filozof. Najviše sam se razočarao čitajući esej o ugrožavanju slobode jer sam se nadao da će Horkhajmer pričati o kulturnoj industriji, problemu afirmativne kulture i sličnim temama. Zvučni naslovi nažalost često nisu bili potvrđeni argumentima i knjiga se pokazala potpuno beskorisna za temu naučnog rada koji pišem.

[Blair · Rating 4 out of 5]

Horkheimer is to Theodor Adorno like Fredrick Engels is to Karl Marx - underrecognized because of their contributions to their collaborator's early work. I personally find that apart from Walter Benjamin it is difficult to assign the overall ideas of the Frankfurt School to one sole thinker because they thought so similarly. Here, Horkheimer shines on his own.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. Complicated. Probably didn't understand a word. Thoroughly recommended

[Maxwell · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you only know this dude as Adorno's Jimmy Olsen, you are seriously missing out