The Twilight of Civilization: dominio, naturaleza y razón instrumental en Max Horkheimer

Abstract

This article offers a systematic reading of Max Horkheimer’s work through the notion of twilight as a critical figure for understanding the contemporary civilizational crisis. It examines how the historical transition from objective reason to instrumental rationality transforms the relationship between humanity and nature, consolidating forms of domination expressed both in ecological exploitation and in the shaping of subjectivities adapted to systemic demands. Drawing on key texts written between the 1930s and the 1970s, the article shows that this transformation leads to the emergence of the “administered world,” a social order characterized by the total rationalization of life, the technification of human relations, and the neutralization of critical capacities. However, Horkheimer’s diagnosis does not conclude in mere cultural pessimism. Instead, it highlights the persistence of remnants of freedom, non-instrumentalized affective ties, and emancipatory practices that may signal the possibility of a new dawn. From this standpoint, the metaphor of twilight frames late modernity as a threshold time in which decline and transformation coexist, and in which philosophical critique offers a minimal but necessary orientation amid the present crisis.