Critical empiricism failed through fear of diverging from the established research system.

Evidence

But had there not been a Berkeley project? Was Adorno not still proud of the combination of psychoanalytic theory and social research methods, of Freud and quantification, which had been achieved there? Had his collaboration with the Berkeley Public Opinion Study Group been nothing more than streamlining teamwork'? Had decisive experiments in critical empiricism not failed to take place precisely from a fear of diverging too far from the established research system, and through an incapacity to form an intellectual community between people associating with one another’ in the name of a `cause that objectively motivates them’, as Adorno put it? Adorno’s critique referred to the established research system, but not to the project of producing a critical, empirical form of social research. His critique made it easier for him to concentrate on philosophical theory, but enabled him to insist to the last on the need for field research to be carried out in critical sociology, although he was not able to define with any exactness what this might involve. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2120

Categorization

• QUESTION: Adorno insisted critical sociology needed field research but could never define what it would involve — a live unresolved question about whether critical empiricism is even possible.
• XREF: connects to: Critical Theory risked ossifying into a mere counter-programme without empirical grounding — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2287; Empirical attitudinal surveys cannot reveal revolutionary prospects. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 230; Political repression destroyed the Institute’s planned European comparative research — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 691

Broader Connections

• Critical Theory risked ossifying into a mere counter-programme without empirical grounding #qualifies (0.78) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2287
• Political repression destroyed the Institute’s planned European comparative research #qualifies (0.75) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 691
• Empirical attitudinal surveys cannot reveal revolutionary prospects. #complicates (0.72) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 230