Modernity's Demons: Joseph Soloveitchik's Critique of Instrumental Reason

Abstract: This essay argues that Joseph Soloveitchik maintained an instrumental conception of reason, and, in later texts, a critique thereof. After brief reference to the work of Horkheimer and Adorno, the paper lays out Soloveitchik's ambivalence around reason, identifying it as the image of God and as a source of evil. Reason, Soloveitchik argues, is technological, aimed at understanding only in order to dominate. Conquering nature through reason allows humanity to overcome nature and attain dignity. However, when directed toward other subjects, reason becomes oppression. Soloveitchik is also concerned to provide the conditions of possibility for the ethical use of instrumental reason. Reason, Soloveitchik says, must recognize its limits. Reason can achieve its ends, but it cannot choose those ends. It cannot determine moral norms. Finally, the subject must restrain oneself in the face of another subject, recognizing the irreducible difference which leaves the Other forever outside their own comprehension.