Modern Science, Enlightenment, and the Domination of Nature: No Exit?

Authors

William Leiss

Abstract

"The disease of reason is that reason was born from man’s urge to dominate nature." —Max Horkheimer, Eclipse of Reason (1947)

In the fuller passage from which this extract is taken, Horkheimer locates the origins of the ‘collective madness’ of modern times in ‘in primitive objectification, in the first man’s calculating contemplation of the world as prey’ (176). Perhaps all one can say in response is, if this diagnosis is correct, there is certainly no cure, so we might as well get on with our lives.

In the early sections of this paper I will first note briefly the argument that the approach taken in Dialectic of Enlightenment and Eclipse of Reason ends in a cul-de-sac. Then I will offer a somewhat different interpretation of the historical dialectic of Enlightenment, arguing that we are still today in the midst of a real, historical conundrum— with potentially fateful consequences—that is playing itself out in contemporary society. Returning once again to the main theme—the relation of modern science to enlightenment and the domination of nature—I will then try to show how the ‘stakes’ in this game are now being raised by molecular biology and neurosciences. For it was inevitable that ‘human nature’ and its most precious attribute, the human mind, would one day become ‘objects’ to be mastered by the methodology of the natural sciences.

Here is where I will end up: Domination of nature through the progress of the modern natural sciences is the defining historical dialectic of modernity, which has a distinctive internal contradiction that must be addressed and resolved if humanity is to be able to transcend this stage of historical development. I argue against the ‘dialectic of enlightenment’ because it presupposes what it ought to prove, namely, that there is no exit. On the other hand, this defining historical dialectic is still in the process of development, driven further by its own internal tension. Thus it is still ‘open’ to qualitatively different final outcomes.

Recommended Citation

Leiss, William (2006) "Modern Science, Enlightenment, and the Domination of Nature: No Exit?," Fast Capitalism: Vol. 2: Iss. 2, Article 7.
DOI: 10.32855/1930-014X.1463
Available at: https://mavmatrix.uta.edu/fastcapitalism/vol2/iss2/7