Adorno rejected Lazarsfeld’s valid criticism and missed a unique learning chance

Evidence

Lazarsfeld’s criticisms touched on crucial weaknesses of Adorno’s without being hurtful. Adorno, who was then thirty-five, only two years younger than Lazarsfeld, rejected the criticism. He defended himself justifiably on some points, and was not in any way opinionated, but nevertheless he was either unable or unwilling to take advantage of an important opportunity to learn, which virtually no one else offered him. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1012 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

By the summer of 1939 this was clear to both men. Lazarsfeld wrote a five-page letter to Adorno voicing his extreme disappointment with the outcome of their association. Its tone was pointed, even harsh at times. Clearly Lazarsfeld felt the time for euphemism was past. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 664 (#expands, via linked claim)

It appeared to me, and I am still persuaded today, that in the cultural sphere what is regarded by the psychology of perception as a mere “stimulus” is, in fact, qualitatively determined, a matter of “objective spirit” and knowable in its objectivity. I oppose stating and measuring effects without relating them to these “stimuli,” i.e., the objective content to which the consumers in the cultural industry, the radio listeners, react… To proceed from the subjects’ reactions, as if they were a primary and final source of sociological knowledge, seemed to me thoroughly superficial and misguided” What caused Adorno particular distress was the unmediated way in which cultural phenomena were transformed by his new American colleagues into quantitative data. — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 663 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Lazarsfeld charged Adorno with logical sloppiness and uninformed empiricism — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1008; Adorno rejected empirical research criticism despite its validity — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1012; Adorno admitted the critique’s standpoint versus criticized standpoint was theoretically unclear (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Adorno rejected empirical research criticism despite its validity #corroborates (1.00) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1012
• Adorno’s and Lazarsfeld’s collaboration broke down by 1939 #expands (0.80) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 664
• Adorno rejected measuring audience reactions apart from cultural content’s objectivity #expands (0.75) — Martin Jay, The Dialectical Imagination, 663
• Adorno admitted the critique’s standpoint versus criticized standpoint was theoretically unclear #qualifies (0.70)