Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, . . . and C. S. Lewis? Two Revolutionary Philosophical, Moral, and Cultural Critiques
type: CreativeWork
description: This dissertation is a critical comparative analysis of two twentieth-century works of profound philosophical, moral, and cultural criticism: C. S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man (1944) and Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944). Written during, and greatly influenced by, the horrors of WWII, both works attempt a theoretically rigorous and substantive account of the seemingly precarious state of affairs for humanity in their times. And yet, intriguingly, there appears to be no reciprocal influence (or even an awareness of the other) in either direction between the authors. Notwithstanding, the authors explore many common themes including the following: the history of Western civilization, the nature of reason and rationality, human nature, the subject-object relation, the question of ethical normativity, the human struggle against and conquest of nature, the increasing detachment of science from practical life, the encroaching dominance of industry and technology in the form of a growing technocracy, and the resulting loss of personal liberty and dignity through increasing forms of dehumanization in mass culture and society. In this regard, both works belong to the prominent corpus of twentieth-century conservative and radical critiques of the excesses of Enlightenment thought—a distorted view of rationality, a groundless system of morality, and a dehumanizing approach to culture—or Enlightenment rationalism. For both assessments, the fate of Western civilization rests on a knife edge, while the diagnosis, prognosis, and proposed solutions they prescribe could not be more drastically different in their final analysis. The authors approach the past and present unfolding of this human drama from two radically different points of view on the ideological spectrum—on the one hand, Lewis the traditional, evangelical Christian, and, on the other, Adorno and Horkheimer, atheistic neo-Marxists, and founding members of the Frankfurt School and c…
abstract: This dissertation is a critical comparative analysis of two twentieth-century works of profound philosophical, moral, and cultural criticism: C. S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man (1944) and Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment (1944). Written during, and greatly influenced by, the horrors of WWII, both works attempt a theoretically rigorous and substantive account of the seemingly precarious state of affairs for humanity in their times. And yet, intriguingly, there appears to be no reciprocal influence (or even an awareness of the other) in either direction between the authors. Notwithstanding, the authors explore many common themes including the following: the history of Western civilization, the nature of reason and rationality, human nature, the subject-object relation, the question of ethical normativity, the human struggle against and conquest of nature, the increasing detachment of science from practical life, the encroaching dominance of industry and technology in the form of a growing technocracy, and the resulting loss of personal liberty and dignity through increasing forms of dehumanization in mass culture and society. In this regard, both works belong to the prominent corpus of twentieth-century conservative and radical critiques of the excesses of Enlightenment thought—a distorted view of rationality, a groundless system of morality, and a dehumanizing approach to culture—or Enlightenment rationalism. For both assessments, the fate of Western civilization rests on a knife edge, while the diagnosis, prognosis, and proposed solutions they prescribe could not be more drastically different in their final analysis. The authors approach the past and present unfolding of this human drama from two radically different points of view on the ideological spectrum—on the one hand, Lewis the traditional, evangelical Christian, and, on the other, Adorno and Horkheimer, atheistic neo-Marxists, and founding members of the Frankfurt School and c…
author: Kuhn, Denny Robert
date published: 2020-05
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:05:13Z
provider: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

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property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10392/6097