Modernity and the Aporias of Critical Theory

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Abstract
Since Weber's analysis of modernity through the category of rationalization, diagnosing the irrationality of this rationalization had been a central preoccupation of critical theory. Marcuse ended his “Industrialization and Capitalism in the Work of Max Weber” with the question: “Is there perhaps already in Max Weber's concept of reason that irony that understands but disavows? Does he by any chance mean to say: And this you call ‘reason’?” Marcuse's question was not unjustified, for it pointed to an unresolved ambivalence in Weber's own work on modernity. In diagnosing that societal rationalization processes would inevitably result in a loss of freedom (Freiheitsverlust), whereas Western cultural rationalism would lead to an irreversible loss of meaning (Sinnverlust), Weber provided a highly ambivalent evaluation of the significance of modernity in the West.

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