Dialektik des Dataismus; or, a Critical Examination of the “Dataist” Moment

Abstract

In this essay, I will assess what many have termed the “Dataist” moment. I argue that Dataism, as a social sciences discourse, presents itself as an instantiation of unveiling, or enlightenment, which confronts many of the challenges encountered by previous instances of Enlightenment. I will, in order to present a critique of Dataism, draw upon some of the arguments put forth by the 20th-century German philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer in their Dialectic of Enlightenment (1947). Finally, I will consider how Adorno and Horkheimer’s framework, as representative of the Frankfurt School of thought, may be a valuable resource for staging a critical confrontation with Dataist dogma.