Adorno dissolved Critical Theory into aphoristic thinking about society.

Evidence

Adorno characterized his own position as a critical way of thinking which incorporated theoretical elements. In his effort to justify the fact that he and Horkheimer were presentingin contrast to their longstanding intention to formulate a theory of societymerely a collection of marginalia to an absent, or at least not explicit, theory of society', Adorno had unexpectedly arrived at an idealization of the marginalia’ they were presenting into the actual goal of their collaboration. … One might simply respond that, in a social situation so jinxed that it is drifting towards disaster without there being any apparent alternative, the greatest possible interestliterally the immediate interest of everyonewould lie in finding an adequate explanation for this in a theory. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 593

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the earlier chapters tracking Horkheimer and Adorno’s postwar abandonment of the orthodox Marxist theory programme. — connects to: Adorno’s late position replaced theory with a critical thinking that consumes theory.; Adorno chose substantive philosophy over a material theory of society — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2528; Adorno diverged from Habermas by prioritizing speculative thought over political reform — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 655
• DEEPTHINKING: The claim that theory should be consumed and vanish into thought, rather than concluded, is one of the Frankfurt School’s most consequential late positions and reframes what Critical Theory even is.
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Adorno’s late position replaced theory with a critical thinking that consumes theory.; Adorno chose substantive philosophy over a material theory of society — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2528; Adorno diverged from Habermas by prioritizing speculative thought over political reform — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 655