Odysseus
The great hero of Homer’s legendary epic poem enters the proceedings very early. The story told in the poem itself is, in fact, situated as being of primal significance to the entire premise of the book: “the Odyssey as a whole bears witness to the dialectic of enlightenment.” Now what that particular assertion precisely means, of course, requires diving deep into the chapter in which it appears; a chapter that is obsessed with the concept of Odysseus as the prototype of all mythic heroes.
Immanuel Kant
The towering German figure of modern philosophy, Immanuel Kant, is an essential character in mapping out the dialectical construction of enlightenment for primarily one hugely significant reason. He is the philosopher which the authors draw upon for their working definition of enlightenment. Without that definition, a premise cannot created and without a premise, there is nothing to argue. Kant’s definition of enlightenment is “the human being’s emergence from self-incurred minority. Minority is inability to make use of one’s own understanding without direction from another.” Out of context, of course, this definition is of little use, but fortunately generous amounts of context are provided within the narrative.
Adolf Hitler
The dialectical nature of enlightenment demands by definition that its opposite exist or be always possible. What is the opposite of enlightenment? Many synonymous terms might well be applied here: ignorance, stupidity, Philistinism, barbarism. Or, put more simply: fascism. Adolf Hitler becomes the metaphorical epitome of the opposite of enlightenment or, perhaps, more suggestively, the absence of enlightenment. Where fascism or adulation of Hitler is found, light is always in short supply. The opposite of enlightenment is really much simple and Hitler it its sacred deity: darkness.
