Anthropological premises implying substitute instincts collapse into absurdity

Evidence

The idea that human beings were characterized by reduction of instinct, surplus energy and cosmopolitanism immediately fell victim to a reductio ad absurdum if the consequence was to be merely the deduction that substitute instincts were necessary. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 624

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies Gehlen’s key terms — instinct reduction, surplus energy, cosmopolitanism — and the ‘substitute instincts’ conclusion Habermas dismantles.
• XREF: Ties to the chapter’s earlier discussion of Gehlen’s Institutions and the Frankfurt critique of anthropological constancy. — connects to: Horney’s cultural determinism slid into ignoring social distortion of instinctive structure; Demanding one be both a person and an individuality imposes an impossible instinctual demand — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2470; Adorno-Horkheimer’s instinct-based utopian critique rested on unproven biological assumptions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1121 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Horney’s cultural determinism slid into ignoring social distortion of instinctive structure; Demanding one be both a person and an individuality imposes an impossible instinctual demand — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2470; Adorno-Horkheimer’s instinct-based utopian critique rested on unproven biological assumptions — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1121 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Evolutionary psychologists see the human mind as many domain-specific evolved instincts, not fewer #complicates (0.75) — Joseph Henrich, The Secret of Our Success, 72