Dialectic of Enlightenment：Philosophical Fragments (Cultural Memory in the Present)

AdornoandHorkheimerseetheself-destructionofWesternreasonasgroundedinahistoricalandfatefuldialecticbetweenthedominationofexternalnatureandsociety.Theytraceenlightenment,whichsplitthesespheresapart,backtoitsmythicalroots.Enlightenmentandmyth,therefore,arenotirreconcilableopposites,butdialecticallymediatedqualitiesofbothrealandintellectuallife."Mythisalreadyenlightenment,andenlightenmentrevertstomythology."Thisparadoxisthefundamentalthesisofthebook.