Economy and power
Adorno and Horkheimer explain power as a flow or a distribution. In their Dialectic, power is divided between countless institutions and peoples. For instance, they analyze Fascism and show that in those systems of government, power is strategically conserved for the oligarchical few who reside in power. That system of government is intentionally aware of power structures. In Capitalism, the portrait of power changes; the people in power are primarily focused on making people spend money, so power becomes a hierarchy of institutions and their ability to accrue money.
Logical Positivism and imagery
To understand the treatment of Logical Positivism, one has to understand the imagery of Modernism and the imagery of Logical Positivism. The question of Modernism is whether progress is a function of time that can be depended on for a reliable human future, and then from that system of thought, Modernist philosophers tend to deduce life's meaning from that function of time. Logical Positivism has only one main tenant: If it cannot be proven with logic, then it is inadmissible for discussion. The exclusionary principles of Positivism make Positivists unlikely to accept the abstract language of Adorno's treatment of myth, and that is why the two philosophers invest so much time dismantling the claims of Positivism. They are trying to make the academy treat their metaphysical treatment of world mythology.
Language and Wittgenstein
Another major sore spot in Adorno and Horkheimer's book is the tedious conversation about Wittgenstein and his ideas of language. One problem is that Wittgenstein changes his mind a lot, but his treatment of language is so forceful that his ideas are often mentioned in a way that disallows further conversation (even though Wittgenstein can be cited against himself). This discussion turns into a conversation about the psychological experience of language and thought. As imagery, language is a suitable platform for discussing meaning.
Ethical goodness and enlightenment
Adorno and Horkheimer have a specific philosophy that they want to elaborate, but they must introduce their ideas to people with pre-formed opinions about these issues. In their scientifically-oriented, skeptical environment, it is difficult to see precisely what they are getting at, but eventually, the reader sees an emergence of imagery that can be called "transcendental enlightenment." Adorno argues that mythology is enlightenment in language, so that world mythology can be explored as a scientific platform, the scientific analysis of which would yield a metaphysic of the human soul. Within these myths, enlightenment tends to be a central issue. This can be seen as a kind of scholastic forerunner for Jung and the comparative mythologists.
