Horkheimer and the Criticism of Culture

In this article, I examine the texts in which Horkheimer tackles the question of culture: following the historical development of Horkheimer’s thinking, I aim to ascertain the significance of the concept of culture on which the German philosopher places his emphasis, and to circumscribe the question of the criticism of culture that emerges in those same texts. I first of all consider the inaugural speech made by Horkheimer as director for the Institut für Sozialforschung in 1931. I then move on to an examination of the essay “Authority and the Family” (1936). I consider also the Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947), in which Horkheimer, together with Adorno, emphasizes the fact that culture, taken as an ensemble of cultural products, is a deciding factor in the annihilation of the individual’s autonomy and spontaneity, in the abolition of opposition between the individual and society and in its establishment as one of the protagonists of the domination. I finally stress the importance of the article entitled “Philosophie als Kulturkritik” (1958), in which Horkheimer advocates that the criticism of culture counterbalances the denunciation of culture reduced to mass production, to cultural goods, with a negation that targets precise aspects of modern-day society.