Episode #109 - The Frankfurt School Pt. 2 - The Enlightenment
The Frankfurt School Pt. 2 - The Enlightenment
This episode continues the series on the Frankfurt School by stressing the importance of understanding opposing views with empathy rather than labeling others as evil. It explores the Frankfurt School’s core critique of Marx: that he underestimated how ideology and psychology prevent the working class from realizing their oppression. Drawing from Marx, Hegel, and Freud, these thinkers argue that Enlightenment reason—though once liberating—has become a tool for controlling both nature and people, reducing them to objects. This instrumental rationality, they argue, can lead to systems like fascism, even in advanced societies. Herbert Marcuse’s One-Dimensional Man is highlighted for its critique of capitalist democracies, especially the U.S., which he sees as offering the illusion of freedom while reinforcing conformity and consumerism. Marcuse warns that technological progress can mask a deeper, subtler form of totalitarianism driven by economic and cultural forces.
Further Reading:
One-Dimensional Man – Herbert Marcuse (1964)
Eclipse of Reason – Max Horkheimer (1947)
Dialectic of Enlightenment – Max Horkheimer & Theodor W. Adorno (1947)
See the full transcript here.
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