Instrumentalization

Instrumentalization relates to something’s function as a means to an end; it is the  ‘making useful of an idea’. Frankfurt School thinkers critiqued the instrumentalization of reason after the Second World War, arguing that reason has become irrational in its strategic deployment for techno-scientific and industrial ends, since this instrumentalization has resulted in systems of economic servitude, genocidal logic, and put towards the fabrication of weapons of mass destruction. When ends are unreasoned instrumentalization, or when rationality is conflated with the sheer ability to engineer something, regardless of unreasoned consequences, instrumentalization can lead to hugely destructive consequences. More generally, instrumentalization means simply to create something to serve a purpose, and can be used for either liberating or debilitating intents and ends.