An Analysis Of Horkheimer's Critical Theory On Instrumental Reason

Horkheimer is a famous philosopher and sociologist of Germany, he is the genuine founder of Frankfurt school and one of the main representative member .He is famous for his critical theory. His critical theory on instrumental reason comes from Marx Weber's "rationality idea" and Lukacs' "materialization idea", and also can be traced back to Marx's "alienation theory". Horkheimer synthesizes their critique spirit to establish his own unique critical theory which takes the developed industry society as the background.Horkheimer takes the relation of human and nature as the main line, takes the relations of myth and enlightenment as the core, through the spirit of enlightenment historical perspective and analysis, he has a reflection and criticism on the spirit of enlightenment. He divides the reason into the objective reason and the subjective reason. Horkheimer said that the objective reason was the critical reason and subjective reason was the instrumental reason. The objective reason transforms into the subjective reason means that critical reason is substituted by the instrumental reason. In Horkheimer's vision, the instrumental reason as the technical rationality, on the one hand, it promotes the progress of science and technology and industrial civilization development;But on the other hand, it has become regnant rationality, it not only leads to the alienation of human relations, and led to the deterioration of relations between human and nature, but also has brought ecological crisis and the alienation of people themselves. Therefore, the development of instrumental reason led to totalitarian rule, led to the loss of human personality and depression, which emerged instrumental reason's hegemony. Horkheimer criticizes the instrumental reason fiercely and pointes the critical spear at science and technology.Horkheimer's critical theory on instrumental reason opens a new chapter in the history of capitalistic criticism. His theory has some positive meaning in political, and has some reasonable factors in theoretical. Of course, there also have a number of mistakes and shortcomings, we should use the Marxist viewpoint regard Horkheimer's theory and learn some useful inspiration for China's development of science and technology.