Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 PHD student of Sharif University of Technology
2 Faculty member of philosophy of science department of Sharif university of technology
Abstract
Philosophical proponents of the idea of progress believe that the human condition has improved throughout history and to this day, and will continue to do so in the future. Adorno writes in his writings that man has not progressed to date, but there is a possibility of progress in the future. Adorno's position thus becomes that he is not opposed to the idea of progress, but to the claim that progress has been made in the history of mankind. Our claim in this article is that according to the Dialectic of the Enlightenment, it is not just the catastrophes of the twentieth century that Adorno's reason for not making progress in human history, but he believes in the dialectical rule of rationality and domination of human history. If we accept this claim, then it must be said that such an idea eliminates even the possibility of progress in the future, and therefore there is a contradiction between the dialectic of the Enlightenment and the idea of progress.
Keywords
- : Adorno
- Progress
- Enlightenment
- Philosophy of history
- Rationality
- Backward-looking progress
- Forward-looking progress
Main Subjects
Adorno, Theodor, (1973). Negative Dialectics, translated by E. B. Ashton, New York: Continuum.Adorno, Theodor, (2005a). Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords, translated by Henry Pickford, New York: Columbia University Press.
Adorno, Theodor, (2005b). Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life, translated by E.F.N. Jephcott, London: Verso.
Adorno, Theodor, (2006). History and Freedom: Lectures, 1964-1965, Edited by Rolf Tiedemann, translated by Rodney Livingstone, Cambridge: Polity.Allen, Amy, (2016). The End of Progress: Decolonzing The Normative Foundations Of Critical Theory, New York: Columbia University Press.Beiner, Ronald, (1984). Walter Benjamin's Philosophy of History, Political Theory, 12(3), 423-434.Benjamin, Walter, (2007). Illumination, translated by Harry Zohn, edited by Hannah Arendt, New York: Schocken Books.Bozzetti, Mauro, (1996). Hegel und Adorno: Die Kritische des philosophischen Systems, Freiburg and Munich: Karl Alber.Bury, John (1932). The Idea of Progress: An Inquiry Into Its Origin and Growth, Macmillan and Company, limited.Freud, Sigmund, (2001). Totem and Taboo, translated by James Strachey, London and New York: Routledge.Freud, Sigmund, & Strachey, James (1996). The interpretation of dreams. New York: Gramercy Books.
Habermas, Jurgen. (1990). The philosophical discourse of modernity: Twelve lectures. MIT press.Jaeggi, Rahel, (2018). Critique of Forms of Life. Harvard University Press.Meek Lange, Margaret, "Progress", The Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy (Summer 2021 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL=https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2021/entries/progress/>.O'Connor, Brian (2008). Adorno: Philosophy of History, in Adorno: Key Comcepts, edited by Deborah Cock, London: Acumen, pp. 179-195.
References [in Persian]Adorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer, (2010). Dialectic of Enlightenment:
Philosophical Fragments, translated by Morad Farhadpour and Omid Mehregan, Tehran: Gam-e No. [in Persian]an
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