The Response Of Dialectics Of Enlightenment To Nietzsche’s Critique Of Dialectics

All along,the academic world has been relatively consistent on Nietzsche’s attitude towards dialectics,that is,taking it as an object of criticism.Nietzsche’s influence on later western philosophy is self-evident.Hockheimer and Adorno are the influenced.In Dialectics of Enlightenment,we can clearly see the Nietzsche factor in their thoughts.Nietzsche’s critique of dialectics is rooted in his critique of metaphysics.It is the result of taking dialectics as a metaphysical language.Nietzsche praised the spirit of Dionysus and believed that it contained the power to face the tragedy and pain in the reality.The metaphysics constructed by rationalism since Socrates is to escape the tragedy and pain of externality,and its emotional basis lies in fear.By means of the necessity of strict.argumentation and the all-encompassing wholeness,metaphysics draws the desired and secure imaginary world for the weak who cannot afford the suffering of life,so as to eliminate their fears.Dialectics has become a thinking tool in the process of argumentation.With the help of logic and dialectics,metaphysics can constantly improve itself and master the reality.Therefore,the reality is also alienated,not only the tragedy and pain,but also life and reality itself are discarded as false.The critique of enlightenment in Dialectics of Enlightenment can be seen as a variant of Nietzsche’s above criticism.The two authors also take fear as the emotional basis of enlightenment,point out that the modern system established by enlightenment controls and dissimilates the human being as the subject,and believe that enlightenment has become a new myth.However,different from Nietzsche,Hockheimer and Adorno did not only take dialectics as the mode of thinking and concept movement,but also took dialectics as the development of reality.In Dialectics of Enlightenment,although the two authors believe that enlightenment has to some extent fallen back into the dilemma of metaphysics,the dialectis provides the possibility for enlightenment to break through its own boundaries,because as a realistic movement,dialectics has the same openness and richness as the realistic movement.Hockheimer and Adorno are two-way inheritance of Nietzsche and Marx.As marxists,the authors believe that the enlightenment itself contains the power to break through limits.This power comes from the nature of dialectic’s self-denial.But the nietzschean element in the authors’ thinking warns them against the curse of necessity.Under such a tension,Hockheimer and Adorno express the self-negation of dialectics as a progressive possibility,that is,a positive self-negation dialectics.These are the glimmers of light that the two authors find as the enlightenment plunges into extreme darkness.It is also a response to Nietzsche’s criticism of dialectics to a certain extent.