The Dialectic of Enlightenment and the Post-Functionalist Theory of Society

In: Thesis eleven: critical theory and historical sociology, Heft 13, S. 77-93

Abstract

In the Dialectic of Enlightenment (New York, 1972) Theodor W. Adorno & Max Horkheimer developed a radical critique of civilization; while it is not always clear whether their main concern is with structural constraints & deformations, or with a culturally codified logic of domination, on both readings, the autonomy & efficacy of social relations seem severely reduced. Behind this manifest reductionism, there is an implicit line of reasoning that has some interesting points of contact with recent debates in social theory, especially with the critique of functionalism. It is suggested that Adorno & Horkheimer simultaneously radicalized & relativized the functionalist approach. The radicalization consists of a shift to the anthropological level; the functional circle of self-preservation, anchored in the fundamental relationship between man & nature, encompasses the totality of human life & determines the structures of its specific spheres. However, it also draws on irreducibly transfunctional aspects of the human condition. Two essential components of subjectivity, mimesis & thinking, participate in the universe of self-preservation without being fully absorbed by it. Every structured expression of mimesis & thinking is inextricably bound up with the logic of domination & the acceptance of power as the "principle of all relations." Although the notion of power as a principle of system-building is only outlined in the Dialectic of Enlightenment, the implications are clear enough to cast further doubt on Jurgen Habermas's critique of Adorno & Horkheimer, ie, that they lacked a system-theoretical perspective. Their argument is not a final affirmation of the functional principle: the idea of a process of system formation through the necessarily incomplete & contested subsumption of the human condition under structures of power differs from the mainstream functionalist emphasis on adaptation & self-reproduction. Also, the transfunctional aspect is reintroduced through the cultural -- ie, imaginary -- dimension of the configurations of power. Modified AA