This blog post examines how the process of reason suppressing inner nature expands into structures of domination between humans, analyzing the mechanisms of oppression created by instrumental reason.
In enlightened modern society, the supreme purpose established by reason is ‘self-preservation.’ Consequently, nature is reduced to mere purposeless matter and a means for self-preservation. Humans, long subjected to nature’s dominion, now stand in a position to dominate nature. However, in this process, reason itself becomes instrumentalized, causing the concrete, personal self to vanish, leaving only an abstract self that has lost its critical capacity. Horkheimer diagnoses that this unfolding human triumph does not liberate humanity from nature but instead culminates in human domination by humans. To conceptualize this problem, he first distinguishes between inner nature and outer nature, then further divides outer nature into human nature and non-human nature for explanation.
Horkheimer’s proposition—that human domination of nature leads to human domination of humans—can be elucidated as follows. First, human domination of external nature necessarily entails the suppression of inner nature. To triumph in the struggle against external nature, humans must internalize the rule of instrumental reason, and in this process, they inevitably suppress their own inner nature. Just as nature is treated like a machine, humans come to treat themselves as machines operated by instrumental reason. The self, armed with instrumental reason, suppresses its own inner nature. And those who achieve success through this thorough suppression of their inner nature find themselves in a position to dominate those who have not.
While the domination of inner nature by the abstract self solidifies the structure of domination by the strong over the weak, more fundamentally, it can be seen that the already existing structure of domination among people forces the self to dominate its inner nature. The reason humans can harshly attack and suppress even their inner nature for self-preservation and success is because it is a tragic struggle to escape the experience of being exploited by a ruthless dominator. Thus, human oppression of both inner and outer nature can be understood less as stemming from inherent human traits and more as a consequence arising from relationships between people.
According to Horkheimer, the more humans suppress their inner nature to dominate outer nature, the more they cultivate a ‘feeling of resentment’ toward reason and the ego, the agents of this suppression. Particularly, the vast majority of the masses, who have become victims of this dual oppression, become consumed by deep resentment. The masses endure a double pressure: on one hand, they must suppress their own natural impulses, and on the other, they are dominated by those who have more successfully controlled their inner nature. The resentment that the oppressed masses’ inner nature harbors toward instrumental reason, the agent of oppression, forms the potential for revolt. This is because resentment generally tends to develop into a desire for destruction rather than the removal of its cause. A person dominated by resentment incites a riot in the form of attacking and destroying others, just as they suppress their own inner nature. Horkheimer calls this phenomenon a ‘natural riot’. The direction of natural revolt is not predetermined. Destructive attacks may target the closest person or the first person encountered. The object of destruction is always replaceable, and the victims are often the socially weak or minorities.
Horkheimer notes here that modern fascism exploits the potential for natural revolt harbored by the masses to further consolidate its own rule. According to his analysis, modern fascism does not stop at suppressing both inner and outer nature; it co-opts the potential for natural revolt in ways necessary for maintaining the system, thereby exploiting the masses even more thoroughly. For example, the Nazis channeled the resentment the masses, who had become victims of instrumental reason, harbored toward reason itself into a natural revolt directed against Jews. However, this natural revolt failed to liberate the repressed nature; rather, it contributed to perpetuating the repression. The barbaric revolt of natural humans against the totality of instrumental reason appeared superficially to denigrate reason and venerate nature as pure vital force, but in reality, it further accelerated the instrumentalization of reason and developed inner nature into the agent of brutal violence.
In this context, Horkheimer argues that anti-rational natural revolts cannot overcome the domination of instrumental reason. This is because revolts rejecting reason do not liberate nature; they merely serve to impose yet another shackle upon it. To escape these shackles, it is not an irrational natural revolt that is needed, but rather reason—which outwardly appears as nature’s antithesis—must first, through critical thinking, realize that the relationship between humanity and nature ultimately stems from the relationship between humans themselves. Horkheimer emphasizes that only when this critical reason is restored can the possibility of liberating both nature and humanity be reopened.
