Friedrich Pollock
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| - | "<nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Juliette (novel) |Juliette]]<nowiki>]</nowiki> demonizes Catholicism as the most-up-to-date mythology, and with it civilization as a whole […] her procedures are enlightened and efficient as she goes about her work of sacrilege […] She favours system and consequence." | ||
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| + | '''Friedrich Pollock''' (22 May 1894 – 16 December 1970) was a [[Germany|German]] [[social scientist]] and [[philosopher]]. He was one of the founders of the [[Institute for Social Research]] in [[Frankfurt am Main]], and a member of the [[Frankfurt School]] of neo-Marxist theory. | ||
| - | '''''Dialectic of Enlightenment''''' ('''Dialektik der Aufklärung''') is a book of [[philosophy]] and [[social criticism]] written by [[Frankfurt School]] philosophers [[Max Horkheimer]] and [[Theodor W. Adorno]] and first published in 1944. | + | == Life == |
| + | Friedrich Pollock was born to a leather factory owner in [[Freiburg im Breisgau]]. Pollock's Jewish-born father turned away from [[Judaism]], and raised his son accordingly. Pollock was educated in finance 1911 to 1915. During this time he met [[Max Horkheimer]], with whom he became a lifelong friend. He then studied [[Economics|economy]], [[sociology]] and philosophy in [[Frankfurt am Main]], where he wrote his thesis on [[Karl Marx|Marx's]] [[labor theory of value]] and received his doctorate in 1923. | ||
| - | One of the core texts of [[Critical theory]], it explains the socio-psychological ''status quo'' that had been responsible for what the [[Frankfurt School]] considered the failure of the [[Age of Enlightenment]]. Together with ''[[The Authoritarian Personality]]'' (1950; also co-authored by Adorno) and Frankfurt School member [[Herbert Marcuse]]'s ''[[One-Dimensional Man]]'' (1964), it has had a major effect on 20th century philosophy, sociology, culture, and politics, inspiring especially the [[New Left]] of the 1960s and 1970s. | + | The [[Institute for Social Research]] was founded in 1923 by Pollock and fellow Marxist [[Felix Weil]], who funded the group. Weil was inspired to found the institute after the success of his week-long conference, the ''Erste Marxistische Arbeitswoche'' (First Marxist Workweek), in 1923. Weil's goal was to bring together different schools of Marxism, and included [[György Lukács]], [[Karl Korsch]], [[Karl August Wittfogel]], and Friedrich Pollock. |
| - | == Historical context == | + | |
| - | One of the distinguishing characteristics of the new [[Critical Theory]], as Adorno and Horkheimer tried to elaborate it in ''Dialectic of Enlightenment'', is a certain ambivalence concerning the ultimate source or foundation of social domination, an ambivalence which gave rise to the “pessimism” of the new Critical Theory over the possibility of human emancipation and [[Political freedom|freedom]]. This ambivalence was rooted, of course, in the historical circumstances in which the work was originally produced, in particular, the rise of [[National Socialism]], [[state capitalism]], and [[mass culture]] as entirely new forms of social domination that could not be adequately explained within the terms of traditional Critical Theory. | + | In 1927/1928 Pollock traveled to the [[Soviet Union]] in honor of the tenth anniversary of the [[October Revolution]]. His research there led to his treatise: ''Attempts at Planned Economy in the Soviet Union 1917–1927.'' Thereafter he took a post as lecturer at the [[Goethe University Frankfurt|University of Frankfurt]] and he replaced the ill [[Carl Grünberg]] as Director of the institute from 1928–1930. |
| - | For Adorno and Horkheimer (relying on the economist [[Friedrich Pollock]]’s thesis on National Socialism), [[state intervention]] in the economy had effectively abolished the tension in capitalism between the "[[relations of production]]" and "material [[productive forces]] of society," a tension which, according to traditional Critical Theory, constituted the primary [[contradiction]] within capitalism. The market (as an "unconscious" mechanism for the distribution of goods) and [[private property]] had been replaced by [[centralized planning]] and socialized ownership of the [[means of production]]. | + | Prior to the [[Nazism|Nazi]] seizure of power, Pollock had used his contacts in the [[International Labour Organization]] to establish a [[Geneva]] branch of the Institute. In 1933, Pollock and Horkheimer moved into exile, first in Geneva, then to [[London]], [[Paris]], and finally [[New York City]]. |
| - | Yet, contrary to [[Marx]]’s famous prediction in the ''Preface to a Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy'', this shift did not lead to "an era of [[social revolution]]," but rather to [[fascism]] and [[totalitarianism]]. As such, traditional Critical Theory was left, in [[Jürgen Habermas]]’ words, without "anything in reserve to which it might appeal; and when the forces of production enter into a baneful symbiosis with the relations of production that they were supposed to blow wide open, there is no longer any dynamism upon which critique could base its hope." For Adorno and Horkheimer, this posed the problem of how to account for the apparent persistence of domination in the absence of the very contradiction that, according to traditional Critical Theory, was the source of domination itself. | + | In 1950, he was finally able to return to Frankfurt, taking part in the reestablishment of the Institute, again taking the role of director. From 1951 to 1958 he was professor of national economy and sociology at the [[Goethe University Frankfurt|University of Frankfurt]]. |
| - | == Content summary == | + | In 1959, Pollock and Horkheimer moved to [[Montagnola]], [[Ticino]], [[Switzerland]], although Pollock held a position as professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt until 1963. He died in Montagnola in 1970. |
| - | The work contains: | ||
| - | * "The Concept of Enlightenment"; | ||
| - | * "Excursus I: Odysseus or Myth and Enlightenment" | ||
| - | * "Excursus II: [[Juliette or Enlightenment and Morality]]" | ||
| - | * "The [[culture industry|Culture Industry]]: Enlightenment as Mass Deception" (in which they prefigure [[Marshall McLuhan]]'s thesis that "[[the medium is the message]]") | ||
| - | * "Elements of Anti-Semitism: Limits of Enlightenment" | ||
| - | * "Notes and Drafts" | ||
| - | |||
| - | == Themes == | ||
| - | |||
| - | The problems, posed by the rise of fascism with the demise of the [[Liberalism|liberal]] state and the market (together with the failure of a social revolution to materialize in its wake), constitute the theoretical and historical perspective that frames the overall argument of the book – the two theses that “Myth is already enlightenment, and enlightenment reverts to mythology.” The history of human societies, as well as that of the formation of individual ego or self, is re-evaluated from the standpoint of what Horkheimer and Adorno perceived at the time as the ultimate outcome of this history: the collapse or “regression” of reason, with the rise of National Socialism, into something resembling the very forms of superstition and myth out of which reason had supposedly emerged as a result of historical progress or development. | ||
| - | |||
| - | To characterize this history, Horkheimer and Adorno draw on a wide variety of material, including the [[philosophical anthropology]] contained in Marx’s early writings, centered on the notion of “[[Labour (economics)|labor]],” [[Nietzsche]]’s [[genealogy of morals]] (and the emergence of [[conscience]] through the renunciation of the [[will to power]]), [[Freud]]’s account in ''[[Totem and Taboo]]'' of the emergence of civilization and law in murder of the primordial father, ethnological research on magic and ritual in primitive societies, as well [[myth criticism]], [[philology]] and literary analysis. | ||
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| - | ==See also== | ||
| - | * [[Counter-Enlightenment]] | ||
| - | * [[Critical theory]] | ||
| - | * ''[[Das Kapital]]'' | ||
| - | * ''[[Juliette (novel)]]'' | ||
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Friedrich Pollock (22 May 1894 – 16 December 1970) was a German social scientist and philosopher. He was one of the founders of the Institute for Social Research in Frankfurt am Main, and a member of the Frankfurt School of neo-Marxist theory.
Life
Friedrich Pollock was born to a leather factory owner in Freiburg im Breisgau. Pollock's Jewish-born father turned away from Judaism, and raised his son accordingly. Pollock was educated in finance 1911 to 1915. During this time he met Max Horkheimer, with whom he became a lifelong friend. He then studied economy, sociology and philosophy in Frankfurt am Main, where he wrote his thesis on Marx's labor theory of value and received his doctorate in 1923.
The Institute for Social Research was founded in 1923 by Pollock and fellow Marxist Felix Weil, who funded the group. Weil was inspired to found the institute after the success of his week-long conference, the Erste Marxistische Arbeitswoche (First Marxist Workweek), in 1923. Weil's goal was to bring together different schools of Marxism, and included György Lukács, Karl Korsch, Karl August Wittfogel, and Friedrich Pollock.
In 1927/1928 Pollock traveled to the Soviet Union in honor of the tenth anniversary of the October Revolution. His research there led to his treatise: Attempts at Planned Economy in the Soviet Union 1917–1927. Thereafter he took a post as lecturer at the University of Frankfurt and he replaced the ill Carl Grünberg as Director of the institute from 1928–1930.
Prior to the Nazi seizure of power, Pollock had used his contacts in the International Labour Organization to establish a Geneva branch of the Institute. In 1933, Pollock and Horkheimer moved into exile, first in Geneva, then to London, Paris, and finally New York City.
In 1950, he was finally able to return to Frankfurt, taking part in the reestablishment of the Institute, again taking the role of director. From 1951 to 1958 he was professor of national economy and sociology at the University of Frankfurt.
In 1959, Pollock and Horkheimer moved to Montagnola, Ticino, Switzerland, although Pollock held a position as professor Emeritus at the University of Frankfurt until 1963. He died in Montagnola in 1970.
