Duas formas de crítica à modernidade: convergências, divergências e um meio-termo possível

Abstract

This work aims to analyze two forms of the critique of modernity belonging to different philosophical strands – illustrated here by Adorno and Horkheimer, on the one hand, and by Foucault, on the other. Both positions see a failure in the Kantian promise of the autonomous subject – humanity has not reached the state of majority –, but each assumes different theoretical commitments. For this, I analyze how each position supports a common diagnosis of the intertwining between power and knowledge in modern Western society and how this intertwining affects the modern subject. From this, I discuss what would be the “way out” for this state in which the modern subject finds himself in each of the positions. Finally, I show how some antitheses between the positions can, in fact, be convergent and outline a middle ground for the “exit” of this state that the modern subject finds beyond the diagnosis of Adorno and Horkheimer, and of Foucault.