Dr. David James

Research Project

German Philosophy and the ‘Dialectic’ of Enlightenment

The theme of the project derives from the book Dialectic of Enlightenment that was co-authored by the best-known representatives of the first-generation Frankfurt School of Critical Theory, Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno. Although parts of the project will deal directly with this text, other parts of it will aim to show how the ‘dialectic’ identified by Horkheimer and Adorno was, in different forms, already a theme in classical German philosophy, if only implicitly. Other philosophers whose writings will be drawn upon include Herder, Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. The term ‘dialectic’ concerns how certain concepts or ideals are shown to be bound up with their opposites in such a way that enlightenment reason generates fundamental tensions either within reason itself or with respect to the ends of reason and the attempt to achieve them. In this way, enlightenment reason turns out to be self-undermining. I shall focus especially on the tension between the ideal of a rational organization of society and the idea of freedom, and on how certain forms of suffering that are difficult to reconcile with a progressive view of history reflect this tension.