Between pessimism and abstract Utopia. Technique and transformation in Max Horkheimer

Abstract

This work aims to reveal as an ungrounded prejudice the widespread notion according to which Max Horkheimer has a purely negative and pessimistic view regarding technical progress. We will show that Horkheimer conceives the birth of modern technique as inseparable from the bourgeois emancipation process. Horkheimer understands that the technique loses its emancipatory potential, becoming an instrument for the perpetuation of an oppressive system once the bourgeoisie stablishes itself as a ruling class. However, that same instrument allows Horkheimer to glimpse a true possibility of social transformation.

Keywords

• sociedad racional, materialismo, emancipación, racionalidad, progreso.