Eclipse of Reason

Outline

Eclipse of Reason (1947) warns that modern society has narrowed the meaning of reason to a mere tool for reaching goals, without asking whether those goals are good. Max Horkheimer argues that when reason is used only to calculate efficiency and profit, people lose the ability to judge values, and individuals become easier to control. The book remains an influential critique of modern industrial society.

• Modern society has narrowed reason into a tool for reaching goals, without asking whether those goals are good.
• When reason is used only to calculate efficiency and profit, people lose the ability to judge values.
• A society that treats reason as pure calculation makes individuals easier to control.
• Moral reflection and ethical purpose should ground our decisions, not efficiency and self-interest alone.

Max Horkheimer (1895–1973) was a German philosopher and sociologist and a leading figure of the Frankfurt School of critical theory. He directed the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt and later worked in the United States before returning to Germany. His works include Eclipse of Reason and Dialectic of Enlightenment, written with Theodor Adorno.