Counter-Enlightenment conservatism reached mass audiences through popular positivism.
Evidence
Free of methodological and epistemological concerns, specialist limitations and mathematical-statistical dryness, Schelsky’s work represented a kind of popular positivism. Schelsky presented himself as a representative of down-to-earth humanity, as an advocate of an anti-ideological need for reality and fresh orientation in post-war German society, as an ally in the fight against the excessive demands being made of his contemporaries by high-flown ideals and would-be educators’ demands for awareness and self-reflectiveness. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 612
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Freyer and Gehlen as the other two conservative critics in the Frankfurt School history’s account of postwar German sociology. — connects to: Counter-Enlightenment conservatism won postwar German mass audiences through popular positivism; Schelsky, Gehlen, and Freyer held an anti-democratic positivism rooted in counter-Enlightenment tradition. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2458; Schelsky’s popular conservatism won audiences by rejecting reflexivity and high ideals — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2462 (+1 more)
- DEFINE: ‘Popular positivism’ is the book’s term for Schelsky’s anti-ideological, anti-theoretical sociology aimed at a broad public.
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Counter-Enlightenment conservatism won postwar German mass audiences through popular positivism; Schelsky, Gehlen, and Freyer held an anti-democratic positivism rooted in counter-Enlightenment tradition. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2458; Schelsky’s popular conservatism won audiences by rejecting reflexivity and high ideals — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2462 (+1 more)