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Single Idea 24318

[catalogued under 2. Reason / A. Nature of Reason / 9. Limits of Reason]

Full Idea

'Instrumental reason' sees everything, including human beings, as resources to be efficiently managed. This was honed in the early Enlightenment, to master nature, but inevitably led to systems of social control.

Gist of Idea

Instrumental Reason aims at efficient management, of humanity as well as of nature

Source

report of T Adorno / M Horkheimer (Dialectic of Enlightenment [1944]) by Jaime Edwards/Brian Leiter - Marx 7.5

A Reaction

This startling book evidently sees the Enlightenment as a supreme source of evil. I guess Bentham's Panopticon illustrates the idea, followed through by Foucault. What can you possibly be for, if you are against reason?

Book Reference

Edwards,J/Leiter,B: 'Marx' [Routledge 2025], p.238