The Precarious Integrity of the Postsecular

Both Martin Heidegger and Theodor Adorno lament the disenchantment of the world that results from the secularization process, but both are loath to call for a return to mythic culture. They seek a postsecular source of value independent of both premodern myth and enlightened reason. As is illustrated by their respective aesthetic theories, however, they pursue this goal in dramatically different ways. Heidegger claims that art can offer a glimpse of a world that is undistorted by the objectifying power of instrumental reason, while Adorno claims that art is itself a form of reason and functions by intensifying the contradictions of Enlightenment thought.