The Enlightenment and the disenchantment of the world: Some reflections in the light of social philosophy

Abstract

The society of the twentieth century "sinks into a new genre of barbarism". This is what Adorno said when 
analyzing the type of society in which he lived and its characteristics: high consumption rates, twentieth
century totalitarianism in Europe, and an increasingly marked decline in philosophy and critical thinking. 
Today’s society operates largely under the dynamics of marketing; this power exercised in a particular way 
over contemporary society is not free, its management, from modern marketing, has been perfected as a 
product of a separation between subject and object. It could be said, then, that the current situation of 
society constitutes a radicalization of the Illustrated project of modern times: overcoming myths using the 
natural faculties of human beings in understanding the world; Thus, if the purpose of the defense of reason 
was related to man’s desire to dominate nature and counteract myth and superstition, the Enlightenment 
is already born under the sign of dominion. The relationship between enlightened subject and its object of 
knowledge or interest leads to dominion, possession, consumption and destruction. The purpose of this 
article is to defend the use of social philosophy, even in epistemological or scientific theories, as it allows the 
expansion of the perspective of analysis of any object, so necessary in these times, towards emancipation 
and critical thinking.