A razão em tempos sombrios: considerações sobre Max Horkheimer e Hannah Arendt

Abstract

This thesis aims to revisit the discussion about the activity of critical thinking and reason as elaborated by Max Horkheimer and Hannah Arendt. We understand that at the present we find ourselves in a scenario where feelings of resentment and insecurity of individuals can be instigated and channeled politically and, in this sense, their own political choices can be labeled as irrational. Thus, we deem relevant to resume the arguments developed by these two authors who, each in their own way, analyzed the process of loss of transcendence of reason and dissolution of critical thinking and, more than that, pointed to the dangers that this process brings to the very dissemination of independent thinking and the structuring of individuals' judgment capacity. Both Horkheimer and Arendt are calling attention to the fact that when subjects are no longer engaged in the activity of producing meaning - something that is more and more limited in the modernity - they have their own humanity downgraded and, moreover, can end up being captured by authoritarian movements. Therefore, considering the advance of popular support for authoritarian governments around the globe, we understand that the discussions elaborated by these two 20th century authors still have a place in the context of late modernity.