Max Horkheimer is a German-Jewish philosopher and sociologist who directs the Frankfurt School. Driven from Europe by the rise of Nazism, he studies why the rational progress promised by the Enlightenment has instead produced totalitarianism and mass manipulation. He frames the central argument of the book, investigating how formal reason transforms into a tool for social domination rather than human liberation.

Theodor W. Adorno is a German-Jewish philosopher and cultural theorist living in exile in Los Angeles. He applies his aesthetic and sociological training to examine mass media, introducing the concept of the culture industry. He observes how standardized entertainment in capitalist societies pacifies the public, forces conformity, and erases genuine individuality.

Immanuel Kant is an 18th-century German philosopher whose definitions of reason and autonomy serve as the starting point for the book's central critique. His system attempts to ground human freedom in pure, formal reason. The text argues that his rigid moral categorizations unwittingly strip reason of empathy, turning it into a cold framework of calculation.

The Marquis de Sade is a French aristocrat and libertine author whose transgressive writings expose the dangers of pure rationality. The text examines his literary work to demonstrate how reason, when freed from compassion and focused strictly on efficiency, can be used to organize cruelty and exploitation. He applies the scientific method to physical domination.

Homer is the ancient Greek poet credited with composing the epic poem about the journey home from the Trojan War. The authors treat his work not just as myth, but as an early document of the enlightenment process. His structured narrative demonstrates humanity's initial attempts to categorize, outsmart, and subdue the chaotic forces of the natural world.

Odysseus is a mythological Greek king whom the text interprets as the prototype of the modern bourgeois individual. He survives his encounters with mythical monsters through cunning, linguistic deception, and a strict suppression of his immediate instincts. His journey illustrates how the modern self is forged through sacrifice and the domination of nature.

Friedrich Pollock is an economist, sociologist, and close colleague of the authors within the Institute for Social Research. His theory of state capitalism heavily influences the foundational arguments of the text. He argues that political administration and bureaucratic control have entirely replaced the free market as the primary engines of modern society.

Max Weber is a pioneering German sociologist whose concept of the disenchantment of the world informs the book's central thesis. He identified the modern tendency to replace magical and religious explanations with predictable, scientific calculations. The text builds upon his diagnosis of modern bureaucracy as a suffocating cage of instrumental logic.

Friedrich Nietzsche is a German philosopher whose genealogical critique of morals is used to unmask the hidden connections between reason and power. The authors examine his contempt for pity and his celebration of strength, noting how these ideas expose the hypocrisy of bourgeois morality while simultaneously carrying dangerous implications exploited by authoritarian regimes.

Francis Bacon is an English philosopher and statesman who symbolizes the early modern drive to master nature through empirical science. The authors focus on his famous equation of knowledge with power, arguing that his scientific vision reduces the natural world to raw material waiting to be exploited for human utility.

Leo Löwenthal is a sociologist and colleague at the Institute for Social Research. He contributes empirical research on mass culture, propaganda, and ideology that supports the philosophical claims made in the text. His work helps connect high-level theoretical arguments to concrete studies of antisemitism and public manipulation.

Juliette is the titular character of a novel by the Marquis de Sade. The authors interpret her as the logical extreme of enlightened rationality stripped of all moral substance. She applies strict administrative logic, organization, and emotional apathy to acts of extreme violence, treating human bodies purely as material to be managed.

Polyphemus is a mythical Cyclops who represents an archaic, patriarchal society lacking formal laws or organized institutions. He is physically powerful but incapable of performing basic logical tasks, making him highly vulnerable to abstract reasoning and linguistic tricks.

Circe is a mythological figure with the magical ability to dissolve men's identities and turn them into swine. Her power represents the threat of reverting to a primitive state of nature. She is eventually subdued through contractual oaths and negotiation, transforming from a threat into a temporary helper.

Penelope is Odysseus's wife, waiting for him in Ithaca. Her reunion with her husband is analyzed as a transaction based on mutual recognition of private property, specifically their immovable marriage bed. She represents the controlled domesticity of patriarchal society.