The reception of Nietzsche's philosophy in Horkheimer's intellectual work: the dialectic of enlightenment and the works from the twentieth century 20's and 30's

• Grant number: 14/18687-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2014
• End date: November 30, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Sérgio Repa
• Grantee: Simone Bernardete Fernandes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research project aims to investigate the reception of Nietzsche's philosophy in Horkheimer's intellectual work. The interest in this subject is justified by the perception that there are changes in the assessment of Nietzsche's philosophy in different works of this author. In order to understand these changes, we propose a meticulous analysis of three periods of Horkheimer's intellectual work: the analysis starts with the aphorisms published under the title Dämmerung (1926-1931), continues with works from 1931 to 1939, through the reading of the essays published in the Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung and other texts of the period and, finally, approaches the production posterior to 1940, until the publishing of Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). The research will be concluded with this work since this is the moment when Nietzsche reaches an important role and is then regarded in a manifestly positive way, in the sense that he is assigned with special knowledge about the dialectic of enlightenment (Aufklärung), in Excursion I, and with a correct perception about the impossibility to provide a rational justification for the moral, at Excursion II. The research results will take into account the idea that there is a rupture, represented by the Dialectic of Enlightenment when compared to Horkheimer's previous works - this rupture is related to the characteristic of the Critical Theory of updating itself according to the developments of its time.(AU)