Adorno, habermas, and the self-criticism of modernity

Abstract

This chapter compares two different criticisms of modernity: the criticism which Horkheimer and Adorno present in the Dialectic of Enlightenment and that which Habermas developed throughout his intellectual career, and particularly in the essay Modernity, an Unfinished Project. Adorno and Horkheimer criticize modernity insofar as it is characterized by the affirmation of instrumental rationality, which is aimed at domination over man and nature. By contrast, according to Habermas, the ills of modernity are due to the fact that modern rationality has developed in an unbalanced way, as it is marked by the unchecked spread of techno-scientific rationality, to the detriment of the other, equally important aspect of rationality, namely the dialogical and communicative aspect.