Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments (Cultural Memory in the Present) - Hardcover

Horkheimer, Max; Adorno, Theodor W.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0804736324 ISBN 13: 9780804736329

Verlag: STANFORD UNIV PR, 2002

Inhaltsangabe

Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism."

Yet the work goes far beyond a mere critique of contemporary events. Historically remote developments, indeed, the birth of Western history and of subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as represented in myths, are connected in a wide arch to the most threatening experiences of the present.

The book consists in five chapters, at first glance unconnected, together with a number of shorter notes. The various analyses concern such phenomena as the detachment of science from practical life, formalized morality, the manipulative nature of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioral structure, expressed in aggressive anti-Semitism, that marks the limits of enlightenment. The authors perceive a common element in these phenomena, the tendency toward self-destruction of the guiding criteria inherent in enlightenment thought from the beginning. Using historical analyses to elucidate the present, they show, against the background of a prehistory of subjectivity, why the National Socialist terror was not an aberration of modern history but was rooted deeply in the fundamental characteristics of Western civilization.

Adorno and Horkheimer see the self-destruction of Western reason as grounded in a historical and fateful dialectic between the domination of external nature and society. They trace enlightenment, which split these spheres apart, back to its mythical roots. Enlightenment and myth, therefore, are not irreconcilable opposites, but dialectically mediated qualities of both real and intellectual life. "Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." This paradox is the fundamental thesis of the book.

This new translation, based on the text in the complete edition of the works of Max Horkheimer, contains textual variants, commentary upon them, and an editorial discussion of the position of this work in the development of Critical Theory.

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Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno were two influential members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory.

Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno were two influential members of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory.

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Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism."
Yet the work goes far beyond a mere critique of contemporary events. Historically remote developments, indeed, the birth of Western history and of subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as represented in myths, are connected in a wide arch to the most threatening experiences of the present.
The book consists in five chapters, at first glance unconnected, together with a number of shorter notes. The various analyses concern such phenomena as the detachment of science from practical life, formalized morality, the manipulative nature of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioral structure, expressed in aggressive anti-Semitism, that marks the limits of enlightenment. The authors perceive a common element in these phenomena, the tendency toward self-destruction of the guiding criteria inherent in enlightenment thought from the beginning. Using historical analyses to elucidate the present, they show, against the background of a prehistory of subjectivity, why the National Socialist terror was not an aberration of modern history but was rooted deeply in the fundamental characteristics of Western civilization.
Adorno and Horkheimer see the self-destruction of Western reason as grounded in a historical and fateful dialectic between the domination of external nature and society. They trace enlightenment, which split these spheres apart, back to its mythical roots. Enlightenment and myth, therefore, are not irreconcilable opposites, but dialectically mediated qualities of both real and intellectual life. "Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." This paradox is the fundamental thesis of the book.
This new translation, based on the text in the complete edition of the works of Max Horkheimer, contains textual variants, commentary upon them, and an editorial discussion of the position of this work in the development of Critical Theory.

Aus dem Klappentext

Dialectic of Enlightenment is undoubtedly the most influential publication of the Frankfurt School of Critical Theory. Written during the Second World War and circulated privately, it appeared in a printed edition in Amsterdam in 1947. "What we had set out to do," the authors write in the Preface, "was nothing less than to explain why humanity, instead of entering a truly human state, is sinking into a new kind of barbarism."
Yet the work goes far beyond a mere critique of contemporary events. Historically remote developments, indeed, the birth of Western history and of subjectivity itself out of the struggle against natural forces, as represented in myths, are connected in a wide arch to the most threatening experiences of the present.
The book consists in five chapters, at first glance unconnected, together with a number of shorter notes. The various analyses concern such phenomena as the detachment of science from practical life, formalized morality, the manipulative nature of entertainment culture, and a paranoid behavioral structure, expressed in aggressive anti-Semitism, that marks the limits of enlightenment. The authors perceive a common element in these phenomena, the tendency toward self-destruction of the guiding criteria inherent in enlightenment thought from the beginning. Using historical analyses to elucidate the present, they show, against the background of a prehistory of subjectivity, why the National Socialist terror was not an aberration of modern history but was rooted deeply in the fundamental characteristics of Western civilization.
Adorno and Horkheimer see the self-destruction of Western reason as grounded in a historical and fateful dialectic between the domination of external nature and society. They trace enlightenment, which split these spheres apart, back to its mythical roots. Enlightenment and myth, therefore, are not irreconcilable opposites, but dialectically mediated qualities of both real and intellectual life. "Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology." This paradox is the fundamental thesis of the book.
This new translation, based on the text in the complete edition of the works of Max Horkheimer, contains textual variants, commentary upon them, and an editorial discussion of the position of this work in the development of Critical Theory.

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ASIAN AND LATINO IMMIGRANTS IN A RESTRUCTURING ECONOMY

The Metamorphosis of Southern California

STANFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

Copyright © 2001 Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8047-3632-9

Contents

List of Illustrations.....................................................................................................................................................................................xiList of Tables............................................................................................................................................................................................xiiiAcknowledgments...........................................................................................................................................................................................xv1. Introduction Marta Lpez-Garza and David R. Diaz.....................................................................................................................................................1PART I: WOMEN IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY.......................................................................................................................................................................192. Exploitation and Abuse in the Garment Industry: The Case of the Thai Slave-Labor Compound in El Monte Julie A. Su and Chanchanit Martorell...........................................................213. Through Economic Restructuring, Recession, and Rebound: The Continuing Importance of Latina Immigrant Labor in the Los Angeles Economy Kristine M. Zentgraf..........................................46PART II: MACROECONOMICS...................................................................................................................................................................................754. The Promises and Dilemmas of Immigrant Ethnic Economies Tarry Hum....................................................................................................................................775. Economics and Ethnicity: Poverty, Race, and Immigration in Los Angeles County Manuel Pastor, Jr......................................................................................................102PART III: THE INFORMAL ECONOMY IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.....................................................................................................................................................1396. A Study of the Informal Economy and Latina/o Immigrants in Greater Los Angeles Marta Lpez-Garza.....................................................................................................1417. Labor behind the Front Door: Domestic Workers in Urban and Suburban Households Grace A. Rosales......................................................................................................1698. Doing Business: Central American Enterprises in Los Angeles Norma Stoltz Chinchilla and Nora Hamilton................................................................................................188PART IV: CHANGING POLITICAL AND SOCIAL TERRAIN............................................................................................................................................................2159. Latino Street Vendors in Los Angeles: Heterogeneous Alliances, Community-Based Activism, and the State Clair M. Weber................................................................................21710. The Politics of Social Services for a "Model Minority": The Union of Pan Asian Communities Linda Trinh V............................................................................................24111. Community Divided: Korean American Politics in Post-Civil Unrest Los Angeles Edward J. W. Park.......................................................................................................27312. Constructing "Indianness" in Southern California: The Role of Hindu and Muslim Indian Immigrants Prema Kurien.........................................................................................28913. A New and Dynamic Community: The Case of Monterey Park, California Timothy P. Fong...................................................................................................................31314. The Politics of Adaptation and the "Good Immigrant": Japanese Americans and the New Chinese Immigrants Leland T. Saito...............................................................................332PART V: ETHNICITY, RACE, AND RACISM.......................................................................................................................................................................35115. Variation in Attitudes toward Immigrants Measured among Latino, African American, Asian, and Euro-American Students Grace A. Rosales, Mona Devich Navarro, and Desdemona Cardosa.....................35316. Racialized Metropolis: Theorizing Asian American and Latino Identities and Ethnicities in Southern California ChorSwang Ngin and Rodolfo D. Torres...................................................368PART VI: SOCIAL POLICY....................................................................................................................................................................................39117. Salvadoran Immigrants and Refugees: Demographic and Socioeconomic Profiles Claudia Dorrington........................................................................................................39318. Environmental Logic and Minority Communities David R. Diaz...........................................................................................................................................425Appendix to Chapter 15....................................................................................................................................................................................449List of Contributors......................................................................................................................................................................................451Index.....................................................................................................................................................................................................457

Chapter One

Introduction

Marta Lpez-Garza and David R. Diaz

Introduction

Those of us who have lived most of our lives in this region have witnessed the transformation in the demographics of Southern California from predominantly European American, most of whom were migrants from various other states (with sizable but geographically contained Mexican/Chicano, Chinese, and Japanese neighborhoods and a scattering of small communities of other ethnic backgrounds), to a majority minority population of Latinos, Asians, and African Americans. Thus, Southern California now lurches forward in a milieu of sights and sounds reminiscent of seemingly faraway places. Indeed, such changes are not unlike those in other major metropolises, just more acute.

The metamorphosis of Southern California attendant to the large immigrant presence has followed the conventional demographics transition linking population patterns to a society's level of technological development accompanied, unfortunately, with its corrupt side of mass exploitation. This metamorphosis has occurred neither in a vacuum nor overnight; rather, it has developed over decades, with its pace quickening since the 1980s. This influx of humanity did not suddenly surge...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: STANFORD UNIV PR
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2002
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0804736324
• ISBN 13: 9780804736329
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Herausgeber: Noeri Gunzelin Schmid
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Mare Nostrum Group B.V.; gpsr@mare-nostrum.co.uk; ; Doelen 72; Breda; 4831 GR; Niederlande