Sociability and imprisonment in industrial society: the twilight of reason at the Frankfurt School

Abstract

The reflections of Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, and Herbert Marcuse marked a milestone in the sociological production of the 20th century. Calling themselves intellectuals conducting a “Critical Theory”, the main researchers and thinkers of the Social Research Institute started, from the 1960s, to be designated as Frankfurt School. Taking the ideas of “bureaucratization” and “prominence of instrumental rationality” to advanced consequences in advanced industrial societies, such reflections went so far as to disqualify any possibility of the emancipation of modern man, diagnosis, moreover, very dear to its strong Marxist roots. But, what would be the profile of this imprisoning modern sociability? What dimensions would be left to contemporary man? What would your relationship with the natural world look like around you? These are some of the questions that guide this article.