Explain the following quotation from Horkheimer: “the very idea of truth has been reduced to the purpose of a useful tool in the control of nature, and the realization of the infinite potentialities inherent in man has been relegated to the status of a luxury.” Connect this notion to your own personal experiences especially as related to your time at college.
What will be an ideal response?
Students should place the quote within its context covering most of the following ideas: Horkheimer argues that modern society is a “totality” that subjects all to its dehumanizing effects; worker and businessman alike are unable to escape the decline of individuality. This decline is most apparent in the modern form of consciousness that is unwilling and unable to image alternative truths. Indeed, “the very idea of truth has been reduced to the purpose of a useful tool in the control of nature, and the realization of the infinite potentialities inherent in man has been relegated to the status of a luxury. Thought that does not serve the interests of any established group or is not pertinent to the business of any industry has no place, is considered vain or superfluous” (1947:142,143). This is a world in which “usefulness” is defined on technological grounds. Thinking in itself is useless or superfluous. Truth is found in “productivity” not critique. Students should then discuss these ideas in relation to their educational experience at college. Some may side with the critical theorists and believe modern college too focused on instrumentality and utility for vocational occupations that serve the existing structure’s interests. Other may defend the experience as one of the last few spaces containing potentiality for truth to work against the totality.
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