‚Wir werden wissen!‘ [...] ‚Ja, aber nicht ganz‘. Zur Vernunftkritik bei Hans Magnus Enzensberger

Abstract

This interdisciplinary study closes a research gap by demonstrating the influence of Adorno’s critique of logical positivism on Hans Magnus Enzensberger. The main focus is on Enzensberger’s collection ‘The Elixirs of Science’, where Enzensberger circles around the theme of science, which he always combines dialectically with the theme of the limits of knowledge. This article shows that his approach can be assigned to the paradigm of the critique of reason and that he can even be described as a pioneer of this paradigm in German literature.