启蒙的界限与现代性意蕴——基于《启蒙辩证法》的文本解读

The Limits of Enlightenment and Its Implications for Modernity—A Textual Interpretation Based on Dialectic of Enlightenment

摘要: 现代性问题是法兰克福学派始终的关切，批判理论是其试图诊治现代社会的方案。20世纪40年代，西奥多·阿多诺和马克斯·霍克海默手持诊断说明《启蒙辩证法》，向人们宣告一种具有精致合理化外表的新野蛮主义已经出现，并将剖析症结所用的手术刀对准“启蒙”。在这里，我们从“启蒙”的逻辑出发，逐步走向对“启蒙”的批判，由此展现两位学者分析现代性问题的思路。我们相信，当现代性建构处于进行时，法兰克福学派的思想资源还将持续发挥效应。

Abstract: The issue of modernity has remained a central concern for the Frankfurt School, with Critical Theory serving as their proposed remedy for addressing the problems of modern society. In the 1940s, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, utilizing their key theoretical tool of Dialectic of Enlightenment, proclaimed to the world the emergence of a new barbarism cloaked in the guise of refined rationality and directed their analytical scalpel toward “Enlightenment” itself. In this thesis, beginning with the logic of “Enlightenment”, we progressively move toward its critique, thereby revealing the methodology through which these two scholars dissected the dilemmas of modernity. We maintain that as long as the construction of modernity remains an ongoing project, the intellectual resources of the Frankfurt School will continue to exert their critical influence.