Abstract

ESCOBAR MONCADA, Jairo. Myth and reconciliation: On the Concept of Myth in the Dialectic of Enlightenment. arete [online]. 2009, vol.21, n.2, pp.371-400. ISSN 1016-913X.

My purpose in this essay is to discuss and understand the relations between myth and Enlightenment that Horkheimer and Adorno express with the enigmatic phrase "myth is already enlightenment and enlightenment falls back into mythology" in the Dialectic of Enlightenment. For these authors the barbarity of the 20th Century, which has had an inhumane expression in the fascist and Stalinist labour and death camps, leads them to rethink the relations between the already mentioned concepts. This inhumanity is not merely the product of "dark forces", but in it, a limited form of rationality is manifested, one that has not been able to overcome the mythical element of vengeance and sacrifice. This limitation is the product of a reason that has placed itself as a something free of all nature and corporeity. To clear this up, I discuss the concepts of identifying reason, progress, humanity, self, sacrifice of oneself and the other. In the final part I analyse Odysseus’ journey to Hades, which according to these authors incarnates the moment of reconciliation between human being and nature, between myth and reason, a moment that does not point beyond history, but to the capacity of reason to invoice that which is repressed and to the capacity of not forgetting its natural determinations.

Keywords : rationality; sacrifice; myth; enlightenment; progress; reconciliation.

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